


Breaking Convention

by epistretes



Series: Quintessence [1]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Thor (Movies)
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Canon Typical Violence, Crossover, F/M, Harry Potter AU, Multi, References to Norse Religion & Lore, Slow Build, Worldbuilding, post-HP series, witch!Frigga, witch!Sigyn, wizard!Loki
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-14
Updated: 2014-08-20
Packaged: 2018-01-08 18:07:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 26
Words: 43,918
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1135796
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/epistretes/pseuds/epistretes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>AU in which Odin and Frigga get married, bringing their respective sons together as brothers. One a military-based university student and heir to Asgard Enterprises, the other with a mysterious magical power and heir to Vanir Productions. With both a business and family merger happening at once, with the added chaos of learning about the magical community, how will Thor cope with all the changes in his life?<br/>Set post-Harry Potter Series and only references events in the books. Hogwarts student OCs (none involved in romantic storylines).</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Announcement

**Author's Note:**

> I have no idea why I did this or how it came to settle in my mind, but once it had, it had to be written. This is totally AU, borrowing some things from the movies, some things from the myths, some things from the HP books and well... it is just a big bundle of random. Also I mangled some of the familial links a bit because, well, otherwise it all gets a bit incestuous.
> 
> I own nothing you recognise, whether it be myth, Marvel or Harry Potter. All mistakes are mine. Un-beta'd.
> 
> Set in modern England, with the magical aspects coming in later as Thor learns a bit more about Loki's people.
> 
>  
> 
>  **Warnings** : Minor character death (violent, drunk driving related)
> 
>  
> 
>  **Pairings** : Loki/Sif, Odin/Frigga, Thor/Jane, one-sided Thor/Sif, one-sided Sif/Thor, Loki/Unnamed OCs, Thor/Unnamed OCs, Volstagg/Gunnhilde, Fandral/Unnamed OCs. (AKA teenagers and raging hormones)
> 
> Many of the minor pairings are mentioned in passing as the years pass and some do not flourish until later in the story. Also, most mature content will be later on, but some bawdy behaviour is referenced from the beginning. There will also be references to warfare and mentioned death of soldiers.

**CHAPTER ONE**

Thor Odinson was very angry. More than angry, he was apoplectic with rage and many of his father's priceless antiques had felt his wroth. Of course, his new stepmother-to-be had waved a stick and fixed them all with her nonsensical _magic_. He was not sure if he was angrier at her simple fixing of his destruction or the fact that she and his father were to marry. These past few days with his new step-brother to be were grating on his last nerve and he needed an outlet. He wondered just how things had come to this.

Odin Börson and his wife Fjörgyn had separated in a very acrimonious manner after she had discovered just how many bastard sons Odin had fathered through the years and she had returned to her native country of Sweden. Thor visited her during at least one holiday a year but as he was growing older, he felt less inclined to visit his mother and more inclined to traipse around the countryside wreaking havoc with his four best friends from boarding school. That or going abroad during summer and doing things that would shame Odin's name if he knew the truth. Which he likely did, but Thor cared not.

It was during their trip to Malaga in summer (unforgettable after Sif had drank too many tequila slammers and been urged up on to the stage by Fandral and done things she still swore up and down she had not in total defiance of the pictures the others all had on their smartphones) when it had happened. He was eighteen now, in the full flush of youth and legally an adult. He had just graduated school and was due to start his military training proper in the autumn months. While they did not officially adhere to the rules of heirship that had governed English nobility for centuries any more (you had to be a little sneakier to avoid nepotism laws these days), Thor was fully expected to go on to military university and earn a degree in Business Studies and doing a military tour before stepping in as Vice President of his father's business empire, Asgard Enterprises PLC when deemed ready to lead. Thor wanted only to succeed, to even eclipse his father's mighty reputation one day. To be more than Odin _son_ , but for Odin to be remembered as 'father of Thor'. So it was, flush with his misspent holidays that he had burst through the doors to his expansive home and greeted the servants with usual affable style that his whole world had come crashing down about his ears.

He had walked in to his father's study to find Lady Frigga Jörðsdotter sitting in a comfortable chair and the two were conversing contentedly. It was not that scene in itself that sent warning tingles up Thor's spine but the way his father was looking at her through his one eye. In a way that Thor had not seen since he was a very young child and had watched his parents talking quietly together.

He knew the two were friends and had been close for many years, Lord Jörð had been one of Odin's preferred business partners and his daughter was his protégé and the one you had to go to to get anything done. Many whispered that she was the true power behind Vanir Productions and had been for many years. She had an uncanny ability to predict the market shifts and since she had joined her father's company they had quadrupled their profits. There could be many explanations for her presence here but the one he did not wish to think of was the only one that was sounding in his still slightly-hungover mind.

“My son,” Odin stated as he noticed Thor standing in the doorway. “Please shut the door, I have news to share with you.”

Thor bristled but held it under his skin as best he could before closing the doors so that the servants would not see nor hear anything of note. He sat because he knew his father would simply order him to otherwise and right now he wanted to appear like a cultured young man and not one who had just come back from a pleasure trip to Malaga.

“Asgard Enterprises and Vanir Productions are soon to announce a merger, we are just toasting the decision now,” he told him and Thor's mind swam. With such a merger coming up, by the time he had finished his tour with the military, the company would have settled and he would be in charge of one of the biggest and most premier businesses in the whole of Europe. He breathed a little sigh of relief as his worries were put to rest.

“Also, as a personal note, the Lady Frigga and I are to wed this holiday season, on Christmas Eve.” The sigh of relief was quickly aborted and Thor snapped his head up to stare at them both.

“WHAT?!” he yelled, all attempts at appearing cultured forgotten in the instant.

“Thor,” Odin warned in a voice that brooked no protest. “We will be merging our businesses and joining our Houses in matrimony. I suggest you get used to the idea. The Lady will be moving in to the guest quarters this weekend so that the two of you can get better acquainted and her son will follow when his schooling term is over in two weeks.”

Thor's mind swam with this new information. He could not process it, he could not... wait? Son?

“Erm...” he began, not very eloquently “forgive me, my Lady, but I thought your sons...”

She smiled at him sadly and Thor was torn. He had always quite liked the Lady, she was wise and kind and had often smuggled him lollipops when he was waiting for his father's endless meetings to end as a child but having her suddenly elevated to step-mother was too much to handle right now.

“It is true that my sons Baldr and Hodr are sadly no longer with us,” she admitted. “That awful accident took everything from me, except one.”

Thor remembered it well. It had been five years ago when Frigga's husband had been driving the family home from a New Year's revel when their vehicle had been ploughed in to by an unlicensed and drunk driver. Frigga and one other had survived the terrible crash but he had not paid much attention, having only been twelve and not really knowing her family other than the lady herself as well as being with his mother in Sweden when it happened.

“Many years ago, my husband and I despaired of having an heir,” she admitted and the sudden mood changes for Thor from merry but hungover, to delight at returning home to excitement at the prospect ahead of him by the merger to shock at the pronouncement of engagement from his father to such melancholy thoughts made him extremely tired. “An acquaintance of mine had recently lost her life giving birth to her child and her husband … did not wish to raise the babe.”

Her hesitation snatched his attention and he looked up, surprised and trying to filter this information overload in to his tired and strained mind.

“I adopted him and took him in as mine own son. Six months later I discovered that I was with child – my twin boys. I suddenly had three sons and my world was complete. Even though he was the elder, Loki was smaller than my boys and so I had sat with him in the back of the car, my body shielded him in the impact and so he and I survived.”

“Loki...” Thor tested out the new name on his tongue as he realised that this previously unknown adopted child would actually be his step-brother in a few short months. He had never had any siblings before, outside of the bastard children that Odin liked to pretend did not exist. Their mothers got a discreet stipend to keep their mouths shut and Thor had never even met any of them. It also occurred to him that now a rival had suddenly stepped in to the picture. Frigga would surely wish her own child to head the merged companies and a tendril of fear snaked in to Thor's belly. He felt a little sick – of course, that could also be the remnants of his hangover as well. “Why have I never heard of him before now?”

“My son is...special. In a way that I could not tell anyone outside of a particular community of special people. Now that our Houses are to be joined, the law allows me to tell you.”

That last bit shocked Thor. What could be so special her tongue would be bound by law to not divulge?

“He has magic.”


	2. A low highlight

Thor had scoffed at Frigga's pronouncement until she had extracted a wand from her voluminous sleeves and cast a spell right there to show him she was not lying or perhaps insane. There had followed a solemn discussion of magical people, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry – where she had claimed to be a 'Hufferpuffer' or something – and Thor had started to laugh, thinking he was just having a vivid and drunken dream and had not actually stepped off of the plane just yet. To his shame, that was not true.

The next two weeks had been nothing short of torture. The papers got hold of the news of both the merger and the engagement and it had all stirred up an apparently delicious scandal. His father was delighted that share prices had skyrocketed with the news as people were sure Asgard Enterprises could only increase the profit turnover with Vanir Productions involved as well as the fact of planning the society wedding of the season. Thor felt mostly sick and irritable during this time and it was only the fact of Sif, Fandral, Hogun and Volstagg that kept him from acting out in extremely unfortunate and public style.

All four had met at the co-ed boarding school The Duke of York's Royal Military School. They had immediately bonded around the training fields, all determined to graduate at the top of their disciplines and they found great friendship at the same time. The only blip in his entire school career had been when Sif had been sent for a year on an exchange program to Lycée Militaire in Aix-en-Provence and he had missed her terribly. He had been sure that she would turn out to be the love of his life and yet when she had returned with tales of a sensual French boy, he had felt heartbreak for the first time. Of course, Fandral's advice had been to join him in his own debaucheries and Thor had done so with gusto. Odin had not been pleased as some pictures had appeared in glossy society magazines and their PR team had spun it as 'teenage boys being teenage boys' and hoped it would all blow over. 

He had still held a torch for Sif for two long years but finally it had guttered out and his father had been unhappy. He believed Lady Sif Týrdotter would bring excellent, high-born grandchildren, but there were plenty of more conventional society ladies that Thor might choose in time. Thor was now of the opinion that Sif made a much better best friend and confidante than she would a wife. For one thing, she was the one person who could consistently knock him flat on his bottom with their sparring. The score was hopelessly one-sided in her favour and the others at the Academy had jokingly referred to her as the 'Goddess of War' for her prowess in the martial arts.

Right now, though, she was the one best suited to stopping him from doing anything too idiotic. They had all been utterly gobsmacked when he had called them to their favourite coffee house the next day and broken both sets of news. The merger was pretty much ignored by the teenagers as they focused on the wedding and new step-brother information.

“Maybe he could prove a good member of our quintet and make us a mighty sextet,” Volstagg offered, spoken as if he was a wise elder and not merely two months older than Thor himself.

“He is no warrior,” Thor replied, even though he had not met him yet, he doubted that a magic wielder would be much use on a battlefield if they were forced to keep their magic a secret. “I know that much.”

“Thor, you may yet like him,” Sif reasoned. 

“We might add him to our group of seduction,” Fandral added with a wink to which Sif rolled her eyes. “Of course, my dear Sif, only you truly hold my heart!” he added before Sif smiled dangerously as she slammed her spiky boot heel in to his foot causing a whimper of pain from the 'Dashing' as he liked to refer to himself. The others ignored it as it was a painfully common occurence.

“I don't see how. All of a sudden I am to have a brother whom I have never met and who poses a threat to my taking over my father's company.” Thor groused. “What has been the point in my training in the policies and protocols if I never use them?”

“Perhaps you need to meet him before coming to conclusions,” Sif advised. “Anyway, we have now graduated and are going to our training in September. You only need deal with him during school holidays. How old did you say he was?”

“Fifteen,” Thor replied. 

“There, he won't be graduating school for three more years and then he will go to some sort of uni so that is at least six or seven years of holiday meetings only.” Sif reasoned. Thor looked to Hogun who simply gave a small nod in agreement of the Lady's words. “And by the time he does become eligible, you'll probably already be in charge anyway.”

That conversation had been the highlight of his weeks since returning from holiday.

The next week had passed painfully quickly and just as Thor was starting to warm to Frigga being around – she really was a lovely woman, he could have ended up with a far worse step-mother after all – came the day when her son would join them in the household.

Frigga had simply beamed during their breakfast and her excitement at seeing her son had swept in to every corner of the room as if she was bathing it in light. Thor wondered at what kind of boy could incite such delight in the woman. After the servants had been dismissed from the room, she took her wand and twisted both it and her body and she had disappeared with a cracking sound. 

“Go and ready yourself, Thor, when she returns I wish you to be in the entrance hall to greet them properly,” Odin told him. “You have roughly thirty minutes.”

Thor left the room and took a quick shower, dragging a brush through his hair (he had let it grow longer over the summer but he knew he would need to buzzcut it in a month for university) and he text Sif a selfie of himself pulling a silly face before he went downstairs (getting a quick reply of 'grow up' back). He was not sure why it felt a little like going to his doom.

Waiting in state with his father and the entire household staff felt ridiculous for the arrival of just two people. The last time he had done this had been when they had hosted his eighteenth birthday party here. Of course, it had been a formal event and the next night he and his friends had gone out and celebrated in less style, visiting most of the pubs in the area. 

A low crack was heard outside but the source of the sound was obscured by the heavy doors, followed by the knocking of the ornate door knocker. The butler moved towards it and opened the doors.


	3. First Meetings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We finally get to meet Loki!

The heavy door swung open and revealed an ecstatically happy-looking Frigga and a small, thin and pale boy beside her. He looked like a typical teenager from what Thor could see. Nothing like the students at his old Academy where they all stood and moved like fighters whether they were very muscular like himself or lithe like Fandral. This kid stood poker-straight and stiff. He had a pinched and slightly pasty look, like one who rarely ventured out of doors and instead stayed inside staring at a computer screen all day. His hair was just under chin length and had a light curl, as if it was usually tucked neatly behind an ear. Thor did not much like the look of him. The interloper.

Many of his effects had already been brought from his mother's estate of Fensalir, to make him feel at home in his new quarters. Thor had gone snooping and found that the kid was a reader if the multitude of books were anything to go by. In fact, there was little else other than a very sleek-looking laptop. A few of the other devices looked odd and he guessed they were magical things. A little glass ball with what appeared to be runes on the side, a box of actual quills like the boy was from the Victorian Era and other things like it. The weirdest item though was a get well card he found in the effects, with only 'Silvertongue' being the referenced recipient – which he assumed had to be Loki for why else would he have it – with comments about distracting a Professor Longbottom well but it being a 'shame about the Venemous Tentacula biting you'. Wizards were odd.

Looking to the side of the boy now, Thor noted a huge chest which was likely to hold his school effects and... an owl cage? Yes, there was an owl in a cage looking beadily at him. This kid was weird, that was for sure. Thor felt a phantom pressure on him as if being studied and he looked back, locking his blue eyed gaze with the kid's green one.

“Welcome to Gladsheim, Lady Jörðsdotter and her son, Loki Friggajarson. You are welcome in my home,” Odin intoned formally as was proper even though Frigga had already moved in.

“My lady, Loki,” he looked to each in turn “may I present my son and heir, Thor Odinson.” Thor here knew that he was to bow politely and yet the locked-in stare between the two boys had not yet broken. They were measuring one another up.

“A pleasure to make your acquaintances, Lord Börson and Mr. Odinson,” Loki said, speaking for the first time. His voice was deep and rather mellifluous. Not what Thor had been expecting from the reedy looking teen. “I am honoured to be welcomed to your home.”

Well, at least Thor had a reference as to the moniker 'Silvertongue' now. This kid was a wizard, a man of words and books and he was not. Thor was a man of action, of doing and movement. He realised in that moment of clarity that they were as different as the sun and the moon. This would be difficult to adjust to, he was sure.

“If you should need anything, any of my staff or my son will be happy to aid you to settle in,” Thor shot a look at his father that got ignored by all except Loki himself who seemed calculating and as if he was filing it away in his memory banks “as I am sure you are tired from your long journey.”

Long journey? Frigga was only gone for thirty minutes, Thor wondered just where Loki had been and where he might have had to travel from for such a comment. Or was it simply a gracious farewell for now as they ended this ridiculous show of formality? He did not know.

“I thank you, Lord Börson,” he replied and Frigga beamed, gently touching her son's shoulder in a way that made Thor slightly jealous. He had not been held by a mother like that in many months now.

“Odin, please,” his father gave permission for Loki to use his given name. “Thor? Please show Loki to his quarters.” With that, Frigga squeezed her son's shoulders once more and gave him a brief kiss to his temple.

“Get settled, Loki, I will be up to help you unpack later if you want?”

“I can manage, mother,” he replied “I will see you for dinner. I should like to arrange my room to my liking first.”

The adults and servants scattered, four of them staying and hefting the owl cage and the large chest as Thor simply strode off, Loki following him. Turning to ensure the boy was behind him, he realised that Loki was drinking in his surroundings – but without the impressed air most held upon seeing Gladsheim. It was renowned as being one of the most impressive homes in the land. Held up by the likes of Chatsworth, Blenheim and... Fensalir. He realised that Loki was probably used to such opulence. He also recalled that Lady Frigga's gardens were supposed to be the jewel of Fensalir which said a lot to her garden design skills as she was said to do those herself.

Stopping beside a set of mahogany doors, embellished with gold ornamentation, Thor opened the doors wide to allow the servants to get their heavy burdens inside. 

“These shall be your quarters,” Thor told him when the servants had set down the items where Loki pointed and left. “You have three rooms, this is your common room, through there is your bathing room and through here your bedroom.”

He opened the doors as he named the rooms and Loki looked in briefly to both before turning back around and fixing Thor with that penetrating and calculating look again. He wondered a little at the boy and his relationship with Frigga, this one seemed stiff and aloof. Then again, perhaps it was simply him taking the measure of the new home and family all in one go. After a long and silent pause, Loki spoke.

“I am as happy to be here as you are for me to be here,” he replied, his graciousness and courteous language from before gone. “However, your father makes mother happy so I forebear. You need not concern yourself with me, nor I with you outside of their presence or knowledge. Do we have an accord?”

Thor looked shocked, at first wanting to chide this Loki brat for his rudeness. Thor had never been passed over for friendship or well, anything, in his entire life. Even if his name and wealth did not see to it, his natural affability and charisma did. Just as he made to protest, though, he realised it was the perfect out in this situation.

“Fine by me,” he agreed. “My rooms are across the hall, but I doubt you will need to visit them.” Loki nodded his approval at the way this was being agreed upon so easily and Thor turned on his heel, pulling his phone from his pocket and leaving the brat to himself.

“Sif! Please tell me we're going out for a drink tonight after dinner,” Thor boomed in to his phone, snapping his door shut as he knew Loki would be listening in regardless of what he said. The boy gave him a strange feeling and Thor was not sure what it was but he had the inkling that he might find out just how annoying a tattle-tale little brother might prove from their short interactions.

“If your father will let you join us,” she replied and he heard Fandral in the background shouting for her to put him on speaker-phone.

“Thor!” he called gleefully as the sound shifted to indicate Sif had indeed switched it to speaker-phone. “We're going to 'Atlantis' tonight, you'd better be joining us. Hogun sucks as a wingman.”

Thor gave a roar of a laugh as he imagined Hogun's lack of external reaction but that everyone knew he was being disapproving anyway.

“I shall be there, my friends. I have had the most wonderful news, my new little brother has as little a desire to spend time with me as I do him so I can do as I please.”

“Thor, you probably should at least try...” Sif told him, Volstagg echoing her sentiments loudly through his food.

“I shall, Sif, but only when father and Frigga are watching,” he promised “But for tonight the ladies – and the men – of Club Atlantis must needs watch out! Meet me here at nine-thirty and I will have the chauffeur take us.”

Dinner was boring. Thor itched to get away from the table and he bolted his food as quickly as decorum could allow. He saw his father's disapproving eye as he almost shovelled the food in to his mouth. He glanced over and saw that Loki was eating as delicately as a noblewoman in the Regency Era might have and he held in the sigh of annoyance. The kid was weird _and_ prissy.

“Which House won the cup this year, my dear?” Frigga asked her son, love caressing every syllable and Thor wondered when he had last heard such a tone from his father or his mother. His mother had become distant of late, it seemed as Thor had grown, he reminded her overmuch of her ex-husband and it displeased her. He still loved her very much but it was not a close relationship they had, if they had ever been all that close to begin with.

“Slytherin,” Loki looked up, catching his mother's eye and he grinned at her. “Professor Bones wanted me to pass on her greetings to you as well. She gave me twenty points for my last assignment and thought you would like to know. We beat Gryffindor by fifteen points at final count.”

Thor thought he sounded like a swotty little oik, he could almost imagine the preening of 'Silvertongue' as he got the points for his house to win this cup thing. Of course, he was familiar with the notion of school houses and the competitions between them but he cared not about this kid's achievements.

“What was the paper on?” Frigga asked, looking as proud as a mother could be at this news.

“We had to discuss Golpalott's Third Law and how one might deduce the one item required for the synergy of the sum of the parts of the blended poison to create the correct antidote,” he proclaimed and Thor had to admit, whatever it was, it sounded weighty. “She said I had cheek stating that a bezoar would suffice in most cases but that it was correct and would negate most such poisons without the requirement of a fashioned antidote.”

Thor looked over at his father who looked nonplussed about what they were discussing, but he still listened anyway, seemingly unsurprised that Loki was a swot. He supposed his father and Frigga must have discussed Loki and his studies at some point. Frigga was laughing as if Loki had told the most marvellous joke and he looked smugly satisfied. Thor glared at the clock for daring to not have struck nine-thirty yet.

After a few more questions to Loki that Thor allowed as he was back only today whereas Thor's academic year had ended a month prior after his exams, the dessert was served and Thor demolished that as quickly as he had the entrée course.

“May I be excused?” Thor asked his father who levelled a disapproving eye on his son but nodded.

“If you are returning tonight, please ensure to _not_ awaken anyone again,” he admonished and Thor left the room hurriedly.

He threw himself in to the shower for the second time that day and sprayed himself with a cologne before doing some last-minute beard trimming and pulling on black trousers with black shoes. Club Atlantis had a fairly strict dress code, but it was the best club in town so he ditched his more comfortable gear. A knock at his door had him opening it to Sif and the Three, all of which looked impeccable. He kissed Sif's cheek as she sauntered in, high heels burying in to the deep shag as she flicked a lock of hair back behind her shoulder. He took in her fitted maroon dress and whistled.

“It is a good job you can fight off interested men easily or we'd be busy all night doing it for you,” he complimented, to which Sif just shushed him.

“Just put on a shirt so we can leave already,” she chided, but with a little smile and a tiny blush gracing her cheekbones.

Thor laughed and pulled on a fitted red shirt and then they stepped in to the hall, Hogun stopping them as a boy turned in to the hallway. He looked up, startled at seeing five adults in his hallway suddenly and he eyed them all warily. Thor noticed his gaze flicking over them and then he saw Loki's eyes go a little wider and some colour came in to his pallid cheeks as he looked over Sif. He could not help but smile widely, Sif really was stunning, especially when confronted with her unexpectedly. It seemed the little brat had some emotions after all away from his mother's side.

“Ah, Loki,” he said, spreading a hand out unnecessarily as he was the only other in the hall. “Might I introduce you to my friends? Volstagg the Voluminous, Hogun the Grim, Fandral the Dashing,” he indicated them in turn “and Lady Sif Týrdotter.”

“A pleasure to make your acquaintances,” Loki said with charm, getting his polite mask back in place, Thor was starting to get bored of seeing the blank features now he knew something resided underneath. “I am Loki Friggajarson.”

Thor ignored the fact that Loki had had to introduce himself properly as he had not bothered. He was still feeling unsettled by all this newness in his life and he decided irritating Loki was the best way to deal with that particular problem.

“So you are the new brother!” Volstagg boomed cheerfully. “A shame you are too young or I would enjoy extending an invitation for you to join us tonight. Perhaps we shall all have dinner soon.”

“You always think of when you might have food,” Fandral cut across him. “We must be off or all the good ones will be taken!”

“A pleasure to meet you, Loki,” Sif said as the three started to move down the hall. “I hope to get to know you better soon.”

Thor watched as Loki nodded politely as Sif followed their friends and Thor took great delight in turning and catching Loki looking at Sif walking away with longing in his eyes before he noticed he had been seen and swept in to his own room. It was probably a little harsh, but he had never promised his father he would get along with the kid and it seemed Loki had no interest in getting along with him either.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Note: [Sif's dress](http://i1199.photobucket.com/albums/aa475/epistretes/Herve20Leger20Iridessa20Keyhole20Bandage20Dress20Dark20Maroon20BandageSydney_zps75c2d0ed.jpg) for reference.


	4. Not quite brotherly love

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think I fixed all of the weirdness my Word program did to this chapter during a save. If I have missed any odd, random symbols please feel free to let me know.

The next afternoon, Thor crawled out of bed with a banging headache and a mouth that felt like a bag of dirty socks had been in it all night and flopped in to the shower before trudging downstairs in his comfiest clothing. He poured himself a coffee with heaps of sugar added to wake himself up and flopped groaning in to his favourite chair. Three deep sips in, he realised he was not alone in the room.

“What?” he asked, voice raspy from all of the shouting he had had to do last night at the club to be heard over the booming bass track.

“Good morning,” Loki retorted sarcastically. Thor looked at the clock and realised it was three o'clock in the afternoon. “Did you have fun at your little dance party?”

“What I recall of it, yes I did,” Thor felt a touch more human at the slightly vicious banter and the strong, sugary coffee. He smirked in to his mug “As did the others. Sif especially, she was the toast of the evening. What about you? Did you enjoy your mouldy old books?”

“They are not mouldy and yes, I did. I decided to begin my summer reading,” he retorted and Thor was pleased to hear the note of irritation at the thought of men eyeing up Sif. This could equate to hours upon hours of fun.

“Seriously? You're doing schoolwork and you only left there yesterday?” Thor was utterly incredulous at the notion.

“I would like to maintain the status of having the highest grades in my year, so yes, I have” he retorted. “Some of us have a little more at stake than poking oneself with a blunted épée if they do not learn. I also have important exams at the end of this coming academic year that could determine what I am permitted to continue studying.”

“Hey, I-” Thor's reply was cut short when he noticed a tapping at the window Loki was sitting on the sill of. The owl from yesterday was tapping their beak against the glass and Loki ignored Thor to let it in and petted the bird lovingly before pulling some sort of bird seed tube from his pocket that the bird clamped happily in beak and flew away to the tree by the window to eat it. That was when he realised Loki had a scroll in hand and was unravelling it. Draining the rest of his coffee, he got up and plucked the missive from Loki's fingers.

“Hey, give that back!” Loki jumped up and tried to snatch it back but Thor was both too tall and too big to get around. “That is personal!”

Thor unrolled it and began to read aloud. 

_Loki,_

_My father would like to congratulate your mother on the news of her betrothal and bid me to send his greetings in this letter._

_Enough of that though, we're having a big do up here at Ogden Manor next week for my sister Pomona's twelfth birthday and father said I could invite people so I don't have to sit around all the kids. I've invited all of the good people so it should be fun. You'll come right? If you come, Sigyn will and if she comes the girls will all follow her._

_-Antioch._

“HELA!” Loki screamed at the top of his voice.

“Oooh, who is Sigyn? Is she your girlfr-”

That was the moment everything broke in to madness and pain. It seemed Loki had kicked him in the shin and his owl was back, attacking his head viciously. It bit and scratched at him while Loki snatched the letter back and Thor tried to escape, only to come face to face with both Odin and Frigga framed in the doorway.

“Loki! Call Hela off, _now_!” Frigga demanded, her voice full of authority and Loki whistled a low musical whistle, the eagle owl settling herself on his shoulder. Thor turned to look at the boy, whose chest was heaving with anger and the bird who looked ready to leap to his defence once again. The boy's green eyes flashed with hatred and it suddenly occurred to Thor that pissing off a genius wizard teenager might not be the best idea he had ever had. “Explain yourself.”

“He started it, he stole my personal correspondence and would not give it back,” Loki said quickly, visibly trying to restrain his anger and he brandished the letter as proof (although he had turned the wording away).

Frigga and Odin shared a look that communicated silently, their boys were bickering like brothers already it seemed. Even if the two of them were unaware of that fact until they caught the look and both looked away at the same time, embarrassed.

“Thor, I will see you in my office. Now.” Odin intoned gravely and Thor winced. Perhaps he _had_ pushed Loki too far, but it had been fun to needle him and get a reaction like that.

“Antioch Ogden's father sends best wishes for you both,” Loki called out before they left and Odin nodded even though Thor was pretty sure Odin had no idea who Antioch Ogden's father actually was, nor cared. 

The walk to Odin's office was a silent one and the door closed with a bit of a menacing boom to Thor's mind.

“Thor. I have welcomed Loki in to this home as my wife-to-be's son. I expected you to behave better than this, better than to embarrass our name by such behaviour.”

“And you are not, with this marriage?” Thor shot back. “You complain about my propriety when you have exposed us to ridicule with this! You look like a foolish, lecherous old man! Do you forget so easily the scandal caused when you divorced my mother?”

“You have forgotten everything we spoke about, Thor. You have caused an incident that may take months to heal and do not think I am unaware of the antics you indulged in over in Malaga or last year in Kavos. _Or_ the year before in Ibiza, though at least we managed to keep that one out of the papers.” Odin shot back, furiously. “You will be away from each other for months, he at his school and you at university. I want the two of you to make it up to each other now as I will not tolerate any dissidence at the wedding or during the Christmas holiday break.”

“I will do no such thing, I want no brother,” Thor snapped back.

“I have been a fool, to allow you such freedom. To allow you to have been an only child all of these years. You are nothing more than a toddler who has refused to share his toys and I am ashamed of you.” Odin replied, his voice quiet and disapproving. Somehow, that cut more deeply than his overt rage. “Find some common ground. Befriend the boy, he has had more upheaval than you in this move. He is not in his own, familiar surroundings and you are the elder. I was relying on you to guide this family forward. You are dismissed.”

Thor stomped out, grabbing his coat and his keys and he got in to his Bentley before shooting off of the estate with squealing tyres. He decided to go to Fandral's for a few days until his blood had cooled, stopping in town along the way to purchase a gift of some wine. A house guest never arrived empty-handed, _especially_ when they were unannounced in the first place.

He had just loaded the booze in to the boot of his car and was walking back to the driver's door when an SUV suddenly swerved to avoid a little old lady who had stepped out without looking and knocked in to him.

“Oh my god, I'm so sorry!” A voice came to his ears as he blinked in to the sun, aware of a sharp pain in his side from the impact. He vaguely caught some form of accent. American, perhaps? “I didn't see you there, I had to avoid the old lady and-”

“I think that was legally your fault,” came a new, dry voice from behind, also American sounding.

“Are you okay? Do you need me to take you to the hospital? You're covered in scratches...” the first girl asked again, ignoring the interruption. Thor thought he must not be hurt as he was transfixed by the girl's face as she moved in to his sight around the headlights of her vehicle.

“No, I should be fine.” Although he winced as he tried to stand and realised he had more bruising than he had first thought.

“I should take you anyway, just in case. That looks painful,” she continued and helped him up. 

“Yeah, she did just hit you with a car,” the other, more hipster-looking girl supplied, not very helpfully.

“Grazed you,” the first girl amended hurriedly “But we'll take you anyway. What is your name?”

“I am called Thor.” As Thor got to their vehicle, he felt dizzy and an older man stepped out to aid him in and he lost consciousness on the way. Thor had come to not long after being admitted and the three people from the parking lot were in the room with him, looking concerned as a nurse disinfected his scratches.

“How did you get these? They could not have come from being grazed, the look like they were from an animal,” the nurse questioned as soon as he was lucid again.

“My step-brother's owl attacked me,” he replied. 

“An _owl_ attacked you?” she queried, sounding shocked. “In the day time? These are fresh.”

“He loves that blasted bird,” Thor confirmed. “I do not.”

“Have you had a tetanus shot in the last ten years?” she asked.

“No, I have not.”

“Well then, I suggest your friends leave the room and you need to roll over.” The nurse pulled a scary looking needle from her bench and Thor vowed silently to take all manner of revenge on Loki for this as the others scrambled out of the room with embarrassment.


	5. Cat out of the bag

Loki had been chided and sent to his room, although Frigga had allowed him to send a positive reply back to Antioch. He did not care, he was pleased that the big lug had got Hela's wroth for reading his missive. The bird was fiercely loyal and protective of him and he loved her dearly. He was acutely embarrassed though about the idea of Thor knowing about Sigyn, especially as he had made it clear that he had noticed Loki's interest in his friend, Sif.

Sigyn had been his first friend as her mother and Frigga had grown up together and the two women had wanted to bring them together for play dates as children. They had been constant companions before the accident that had taken his father and brothers from him, even more so after the fact. At Hogwarts they had been sorted in to the same House and had remained just as inseparable. Last year, they had taken the next step and begun to date. He knew her father was delighted by the idea. Even though no one with even half a brain cell allowed any sign or word that they might think in terms of purebloodedness any more, the pureblooded families did still tend to stick together more so than the others and these two were just that, even with Loki's adoption factored in.

As it was, he did not want this new 'brother' he had to live with for the holidays knowing anything about his life. He would never create too many problems that his mother could find out about as being if his causing, as he wanted her happiness above everything, but he was not about to let this blond oaf trample all over his plans.

Hearing the wheels of Thor's Bentley squeal as he shot out of the grounds, Loki's smirk widened. He might not be able to use his magic on his holidays but he was sure Thor could not keep him out of his rooms, even if the thought had even occurred to him. When he was sure the coast was clear, he slipped across the hallway and turned the handle. He had not even locked the door.

Sliding through the crack like a shadow, closing it behind him, the rooms were revealed. It looked like he had been through here like a whirlwind of chaos as he grabbed some items before leaving in his towering rage. Keeping his ears alert for any sign that a maid might come in to tidy up the mess, he quickly made his way to the bureau. There was more likelihood of there being something worthwhile in here than anywhere else in the room. He found receipts that he quickly memorised the names of some of the places Thor had frequented. Most of them seemed to be local pubs, clubs and pleasure spots. Still the knowledge could be useful. He found a few fitness magazines around and flushed with embarrassment when he stumbled across Thor's rather prolific porn and sex toy collection. He found a laptop, but did not have time to break in to it and he doubted it would be overlooked were Thor to come back, so he left it for now.

While he usually was not around electronic devices at school, he had grown up around them. Pureblooded though his mother's family were, they easily straddled the business worlds of magic and muggle and so he had become competent with the muggle devices. Sometimes it seemed like they were just as magical as his spells but he refused to allow an entire section of knowledge to be out of his grasp just because magic was more efficient and expedient. If he was ever to take over his mother's business, he could not do it while having an ignorance of the people and machinery they utilised to gain such profitable results.

That and all of the younger forms were required to take some form of Muggle Studies now in an effort to try to stamp out the last of the pureblood supremacists, underground though they were in the wake of Voldemort's humiliating and costly defeat. So much pure blood spilled for something so pointless. Loki did not really care one way or the other. Both magical folk and muggle folk were useful when applied to a task in the right manner and he viewed himself a great puppet master. It would not take him long to isolate Thor's strings and then he would push and pull with great glee to get what he wanted. He had laid the foundations and he could build from there. 

He settled in for the evening with his book once again. He had lied to Thor about the book and he located his place and continued to read. He had managed to find a tome of magic that no student should ever have access to and he guarded the secret zealously. It was a tome of layered, powerful magic. It had been written in ancient runes and had taken him a year to decipher the codes even with his high marks in the subject at school. His persistence had paid off two months previously when he had managed to complete an animagus transformation and found his form was that of a blue-skinned humanoid with raised lines and whorls. Pleased by his success, but irritated that it was not the sort of animal he expected, he applied himself to the lore of animagi. He knew wizards were limited to one form, but he was certain that this was due to some law or layered magic preventing more forms to make it easier for the Ministry to track animagi. He was piercing the veil holding him and he could feel an excited stirring in his blood. He was on the scent, he was sure and this book was the key to the complicated lock.

Eventually, he became tired and could no longer decipher the old, crabbed text of the runes and had to set the book back in to the hidden panel in his chest.

The next morning at breakfast, he was unsurprised to find that Thor had not returned. Buttering a slice of toast, he greeted his mother and Odin when they swept in.

"Good morning, mother, Odin."

"Good morning, Loki" they echoed in unison but Odin continued "Is Thor not here this morning?"

"Unless he is asleep in his room. I have not seen him since yesterday," Loki all but confirming their suspicions that Thor had not come home. 

After the breakfast, the two adults left for work and Loki had the run of the house. He sneaked around the servants, skilled in the art of hiding in shadows and going undetected even when not utilising his cloaking magic. 

Odin's study was locked but such a precaution did not stop him and soon he was acquainting himself with details of Asgard Enterprises that should not be known to any outside the board. Only when he heard the tell tale signs of someone moving in the next room cleaning did he set down the forbidden knowledge and relock the door.

He was satisfied with what he knew. He was determined to prove himself the better candidate to take over despite being younger and not the biological son of Odin.

______

Thor had been kept in for observation overnight despite seeming less damaged than expected from owl scratches and the car accident just to be on the safe side. He had always healed fairly quickly.

 

He found himself in rather a bad mood as he fished out some change for the bus as his car was still in the car park where he had left it the previous day. The only vague high moment of yesterday had been the pretty young woman he had briefly met. Of course, the fact that she had run him over was not fantastic but somehow it had not taken the shine off of her when he had looked upon her face for the first time.

Getting back to his car, he decided against heading back home and instead pointed his car in the direction of Fandral's as he had intended to the day before. When he got there, he found that the others had all gathered there anyway and they all exclaimed when they saw his face.

Fandral proclaimed that he wanted to challenge the varmit to a duel, Sif looked like she was abandoning all talk of getting Thor to try to make friends with him and like she wanted to gut Loki herself. Volstagg had attempted to be a mediator at first but given up and Hogun...well, Hogun just looked as grim as usual.

“The sooner the little shit is back at his school for freaks, the better,” Thor snapped as he grabbed the glass Fandral had filled for him from the stash of deep red wine he had brought with him.

“September first, right? Only six more weeks.” Fandral replied with a soothing tone, before scoffing “Anyway, who owns a pet _owl_?”

“What do you mean school for freaks?” Sif queried and Thor looked concerned for a moment before returning to angry and bullish. Everything had been going so well until the day he had been informed he had a new brother he would have to deal with. He found himself longing for those days before Loki.

“I'm not really supposed to tell you, but sod it. That vindictive little-”

“Thor!”

“-has _magic_. Actual pointy-hat-and-a-broomstick magic. So does Frigga and it is supposed to be a secret.” The room went silent. “I'm not crazy, I can prove it. You should see the weird stuff he has in his bedroom.”

“That might even make _me_ do my homework in the summer,” Volstagg joked “but who needs magic when you can fight with your bare hands?”

“Magic is real?” Sif asked, looking sceptical and cutting right to the core of the subject.

“Magic is real. I saw Frigga prove it to me. He hasn't cast anything that I have seen, but I believe her. I wish I didn't, but I do.” Thor sighed and took some more of his drink.

“Wizards are evil, Thor. Watch out for him.” Fandral told him, ominously, looking like he would not trust Loki as far as he could throw him.


	6. Thor Odinson and the Nosiness of Doom.

Thor returned home that night, his rage abated a little but his wariness levels were much higher than before. Both boys had shown their claws and disdain for one another and tonight would likely be a sticking point as to whether they could ever get along.

Pushing open the door to the dining room, the hum of conversation halted as the three occupants looked over at him.

"We were starting to think that you were not going to join us," Frigga commented mildly as he sat down. "Your food might be a little cold. Do you want me to heat it for you?"

Thor eyed her carefully and then nodded. He needed to know more about this magic stuff if he were to hold his own against her son. He remembered Fandral's warning but Frigga had never seemed capable of evil. The whole thing was ridiculous, really. Learning about magic when he could snap the kid like a twig. However he was too young for Thor to simply challenge. Perhaps if they beat seven bells out of each other, they might settle their differences. It had always worked before for him. 

He watched carefully as she produced her wand and murmured a spell with the otherwise ordinary stick of wood. His food began to give heat and a pleasing aroma met his nose. That was kind of handy, he had to admit but it still unsettled him. Had it been Loki's doing, he would refuse to eat it. Frigga, though, he trusted. The food was good, warm as if it had just been served from the kitchen in that moment. 

"Where did you stay last night?" Odin asked in a tone of voice that was almost friendly and fond, were it not for the undertone of 'it better not have been a random woman again'.

"East Surrey Hospital," he replied, looking up to see the three reactions to the pronouncement. Yes, it was being hit by the SUV that put him there but he was happy to let them come to their own conclusions about the owl attack. Odin looked concerned, Frigga gasped and asked if he was okay and Loki glowered. "I had to have a tetanus shot. They kept me in for observation."

"Why did they not contact us?" Odin demanded and Thor noted the use of 'us' instead of 'me'.

"I did not give them the details. Then I went to Fandral's for the afternoon."

"As you are feeling better, my son, I wish you to accompany Loki to his friend's house on Friday and Saturday. Frigga and I have been obliged to attend a dinner this weekend in Zürich." Thor gripped his fork with fury and failed to school his features.

"Lord Börson, if I may, I do not wish to inconvenience my new brother as I am sure he must already have plans for the week’s end. I can petition the Ministry to speed up the connection of this home to the Floo Network or failing that, I am certain Mr. Ogden would oblige in Side-Along Disapparating me there." Thor snorted in to his food, fury gone in the oddness of such a statement as ‘Floo Network’ and ‘Side-Along Disapparating’ being spoken as calmly as ‘getting in car’ would.

"Wierd." Was all he offered but he was listening to the words intently even though they made no sense to him.

"I believe that Thor will prove himself up to this task," Odin shut down Loki's entreaties completely and gave a significant look to both stubborn boys. "I would prefer someone I know to look after you during your journey."

Thor glanced at Loki and saw the boy doing the same to him. They sized one another up but acquiesced silently to Odin's decree. Two days together and Thor would possibly have to stay the night with a bunch of _wizards_. He sincerely hoped that there was a hotel he could slink off to and avoid that calamity. Fandral's warning rang clear in his mind. Thor knew that it was just a knee-jerk reaction, but had not all of the films they had seen as kids depicted wizards as evil masterminds with the brave and true heroes vanquishing them with steel and sinew? He could not think of one tale in which the evil warrior was righteously defeated by a good wizard. Not one. The only good wizards in tales were opposite other wizards who had fallen to evil ways. That and 'Slytherin' sounded too snakelike and slippery for Thor's taste. Hufflepuff sounded much more of a wholesome name, which to his mind suited Frigga. A woman whose only faults to him seemed to be that she was marrying his father and had brought that little snot in to his life and home. 

He did not want to have his father ranting at him again about not being worthy of the name Odinson, though, so he nodded once. 

"How far will I have to drive?" He asked, pushing a slice of beef in to his mouth. 

"Antioch’s family have a manor in Berkshire, near Beedon." Loki replied as he stabbed a spear of asparagus in butter with his fork.

Thor sighed. Ninety minutes each way, traffic being forgiving, stuck in a car with his new little git of a step-brother. He supposed it could be worse. That Ogden kid could have been on the other side of the country after all. At least they would not have to take a nine-hour train journey to Newcastle or something, that would have been intolerable.

“We are expected at six sharp,” Loki continued after he had swallowed the vegetable and Thor studied him. What was it that caused the kid to have a rod shoved so firmly up his backside? He had not come across anyone like him of Loki’s age, it seemed strange to him.

“Traffic will do what it wants,” Thor replied and he set his fork down. “May I be excused?”

Odin nodded and so Thor left the room quickly and headed for his own rooms. Someone had been in to tidy up, he noted and he pulled the lid of his laptop up and fired the machine up. He left it to boot up and went to have a quick shower, gently checking the healing wounds on his face. They should be gone by tomorrow, which was good.

When Thor got back to his computer, he was delighted to see that Hogun was online. The person he wanted to speak to most. Well, the person he wanted to speak to most after that pretty girl in the car park but she had left while he slept and he had been too dazed to even think of asking for her phone number. He hoped he might bump in to her again soon, albeit this time perhaps in not such a dramatic and painful manner.

 _Hogun_ he fired an instant message at his most tech-savvy friend. Not that that said a great deal as they were all more interested in being outside in the sunshine than inside and staring at a computer screen but Hogun knew his way around. He had trained the most in explosives and co-ordinated strikes because of it. Volstagg was the worst, he still barely knew how to do anything but order take-out food online.

_Can you do me a favour? I want to know as much as you can find out about a man named Ogden who lives near Beedon, Berkshire. I do not know his first name but he has a son called Antioch. He goes to the same freak school as Loki, but they know Frigga and seem to want to connect with my father. They might have some presence._

_Can do._ Thor smirked. As usual, Hogun was as frugal with his typed words as he was with his spoken ones. He knew his friend would need a couple of hours at the very least to find anything worthwhile or juicy about the guy, but he wanted to know what he was walking in to this weekend as much as he could.

As it was, he was struck with inspiration. He had a couple of hours to kill and nothing to do. He might as well go and pump Frigga for information that Hogun would likely be unable to sniff out.

He found her sitting in the parlour that she had seemed to favour. The windows looked full out on to the gardens and he wondered if she missed her own home and gardens. It was a comfortable room but Thor rarely spent time in here, preferring his own chambers most of the time.

“I hope I am not interrupting,” he greeted apologetically as he entered.

“Not at all, I was merely thinking quietly,” she indicated that he could sit in one of the comfortable arm chairs by her. It almost seemed absurd being invited to sit in his own house, but he knew she was merely being polite.

“Loki not here?” he asked, looking around as he sat in a squashy and comfortable little chair.

“No, my son has gone to feed Hela and Jörmungandr,” she replied.

“He has another pet?”

“Yes, he has a sea-snake that he adores,” she told him proudly. “Loki is a great lover of animals. He and Jörmungandr share a bond that is very special, my son is a Parselmouth. He found Jörmungandr in the Great Lake and they have been together ever since. Jörmungandr resides in the lake of Fensalir when not at Hogwarts.”

“I do not know what that is,” Thor admitted, it sounded like just one more weird thing to add to Loki’s ever-growing list of faults.

“He can speak with snakes,” she clarified. “We do not speak of it much, it is a rare gift and sometimes those that speak Parseltongue are maligned by those who misunderstand.”

“That is why I have come, Lady,” Thor told her, earnestly. “I wish to do my father proud but I understand none of your and Loki’s powers or customs. I do not wish to taint the Odinson and Börson name by accidentally committing a faux pas at this party.”

Frigga smiled warmly at him and she began to spin a tale of a magical castle with moving staircases, ghosts and all manner of magical and fantastical creatures. Thor soaked it all in, pausing her occasionally to ask questions. It seemed far more wonderful than he had imagined it could be. Even though it sounded full of light and learning, Fandral’s warning still sounded in his head. There were always bad apples and if one of them had powers such as Frigga described, then this impending marriage might have just put him in more danger than any of his war training ever had. It was actually somewhat frightening and Thor was unaccustomed to being scared of anything.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I promise there will be a lot more Thor and Loki interaction in the next chapter! Road trip time!


	7. Big brother, Little brother

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Warning** : referenced gory death (not detailed) and implied past murders. Also a tiny reference to a certain mythological event and one to a TV programme that I could not resist.

Thor's mind was spinning with the information he had gleaned from Frigga. She seemed very pleased that he would ask and she had told him such fantastical stories with a straight face. He had wanted to not believe her and dismiss all that she was saying but it seemed like the most ridiculous ruse to participate in - and he had seen her perform magical feats with his own two eyes.

The one that stuck most in his mind though of all of her stories was the tale of a wizard self-styled as 'Lord Voldemort'. He had not understood all of it and Frigga herself only knew the tales from the survivors as she had been mostly unaffected. She told him that she had married a pureblooded wizard and they kept a low profile during his two reigns of terror, meaning she was left alone and had not suffered any attempts at recruitment. 

He had been behind the bridge collapsing in London a few years ago as well as a spate of murders across the country. Suddenly the discrepancies in the reports on the news made a lot more sense. He did not think he had ever felt sorry for a politician before, but he could not imagine having to hide such things from a whole nation. He had not even kept the secret of Frigga and Loki's magic from his friends for two days. He realised then that he needed to work on that if he were to follow his father in to leading the company and have any form of success. 

Hogun had not let him down, he had found some interesting details about Loki's friend and his family. He fired off a quick thank you and started to read.

Phillidus Ogden, father to Antioch and Pomona, was the only surviving child of a man who had seemingly come from nowhere during the tail end of the industrial revolution. Garric Ogden had made millions in buying out failing factories and making them profitable again. It seemed a trail of scandal and bodies followed the man. Nothing was ever proved against him. His son Filius inherited the business upon Garric's death and ended up falling tragically in to a meat grinder less than a year later. Phillidus then took control of the corporation and it had continued to grow and yet it never shed a grisly reputation. Those who accused it of wrongdoing always seemed to end up missing or being checked in to mental institutions with an array of conditions, most commonly amnesia. 

Immediately, Thor resolved to keep the Ogdens far from any association with his father's company. He could not avoid meeting them or stop Loki's association with them, but he was concerned anyway. Fandral's warning was going off like a persistent claxon in his head. So far the Ogdens were beyond horrible and Loki was barely tolerable even at his best. All wizard-kind had going for them in Thor's eyes was Frigga herself.

Yet, here he was, tied in to going to their manor and making small talk. Not a pleasant prospect at all. He could not even count on Loki being his ally on this trip and keeping him as far away as possible from these evil people. What a weekend he had ahead - especially annoying when he got a text from Fandral insisting that he go with the group to London for a long weekend of revelry. With a heavy heart, he text back his excuses and chuckled at Fandral’s one-worded expletive response to it.

Friday morning dawned and Thor did not see it. He had been up half of the night online with Hogun trying to ferret out secrets about wizards. Any strange and unexplained phenomena was researched thoroughly and he had not dedicated himself to any sort of learning like this since he had crammed for his exams. His head had hurt and he woke with it still thumping. A hot shower, a downed pint of water and two paracetamol helped to take the edge off and he wandered over to Loki’s rooms and pounded on the door.

“Oi Loki, we’re leaving in ten minutes,” he called through the wood and then nearly fell over as Loki opened the door he was leaning on suddenly.

“I am ready, the servants have already loaded your car with my things,” Loki responded smoothly and Thor took in what the kid was wearing. He was dressed in a dark green shirt that had a sort of subtle satiny sheen to it, a pair of tailored black trousers and over the top, a black cloak. His hair was impeccably groomed and curled around the bottoms of his ears. Thor, in contrast, was in a tight fitted red tee and a pair of smart-ish jeans with a tailored jacket over the top.

“I’m not supposed to wear a dress as well am I?” Thor asked, feeling a little belligerent with his headache and his mind full of the grisly things that he had discovered overnight. He did have to admit, somewhere deep in his mind, that Loki looked sort of good. He looked groomed, grown up and put together and much less like the hateful little brat that had set his owl on him. However, he also looked frail and a little gangly and a tiny spark within Thor wanted to protect him. They were walking in to a serpent’s lair and Frigga loved this boy. Thor knew then, that he had to keep this kid safe. Still, something bothered him about the outfit and he could not quite place his finger on the way of it.

“I somewhat doubt you could pull off a dress, Thor,” Loki shot back in a bored sort of way. “You would make the ugliest woman I would ever have the misfortune to see.”

“Well, I don’t have your girly face,” Thor shot back and turned around, hefting his overnight bag. “Ground rules: One - Eat anything in my car and you will not like the consequences. Two - I am doing this for my father and for Frigga, not for you. Three - keep your freaky friends away from me. I end up in a meat grinder or an amnesiac ward and I can assure you, the Ogdens will not survive my father’s fury. Hogun has all the details he needs to ensure he finds out what really happened. Got it?”

Loki blinked at this diatribe and looked somewhat surprised. “I have to admit, I am impressed that you had the initiative to look in to the Ogdens, but you will have a guest right, even though you are a muggle. As my chaperone you will be afforded a good room and board, even if it might not be as nice as the room they would offer my mother. The Ogdens keep to the old ways.”

“You mean xenophobia and bigotry,” Thor snorted, “They only like the purebloods, right? Like that Lord Mouldyshorts or whatever his name was.”

“You have been speaking with my mother, haven’t you?” Loki looked at the older boy appraisingly as they moved in to the garage and Thor dumped his bag in to the boot and snapped it closed.

“I thought I should know what I was walking in to while they swanned off to Zürich, yeah. I am military trained you know, intelligence is everything.”

“Hence my surprise,” Loki retorted as he slid his seatbelt in to the buckle “I did not think you had any.”

Thor ignored him and turned his key in the ignition and revved the car as the garage door opened automatically. He felt at home in this vehicle. It was his baby and he loved her. As soon as the door was open enough, the powerful car smoothly glided across the gravel before they got to the gates and swept out majestically on to the road.

Loki, Thor noted, had opened a book and stuck his nose in it. He supposed the younger teen did not get car sick from reading and the lack of conversation was just fine by him...even if he had rather enjoyed their snarky little exchange from before. Loki had a wit and Thor was enjoying the verbal sparring despite himself.

A few deft turns here and there and Thor took them down the back roads until they met the on ramp to the motorway. Here, was his zone. He loved the little winding country lanes but Georgette could really tear up the motorway with abandon. He knew which speed cameras were real and which were dummies to make motorists scare and slow down and the car gave a loud and contented-sounding purr as he turned in to the fast lane and put the accelerator down. Loki suddenly yelped loudly and Thor glanced over. The kid looked green and his book had fallen in to the foot well.

“Slow down.” He commanded in a soft voice.

“What, why? We’re on the motorway.” Thor sounded perplexed, that was what the national speed limit was for, to bomb down these huge traffic ways. Okay, so he was exceeding that limit by twenty miles per hour but what of it? He could handle his baby with practised ease. He was sure he could even give The Stig a run for his money in this car.

“SLOW DOWN, THOR. I’M GOING TO BE SICK!” Loki screamed.

“Not in Georgette you aren’t! I knew I should have stopped you reading in the car,” he groaned.

“You named,” Loki paused as he looked like he was holding back vomit “your car ‘Georgette’?”

“Vomit in this car and I’ll gut you,” Thor warned as he cut back across the lanes and hurriedly pulled up on the hard shoulder. As soon as the car was stationary, Loki shot out of his seat and hung over the railing before emptying his stomach in to the field beyond. Thor put his hazard lights on and pulled some gum and a bottle of water out of his little ‘hangover emergency pack’ he stashed in the glove compartment and went over to the kid. He really was heaving, his shoulders shaking with an intensity that Thor almost worried he might injure himself being such a skinny little thing as he was.

As Loki came up and gasped for breath, sweaty and still shaking, Thor stepped forward and shoved the water at him.

“Here. No more reading in the car if it makes you feel sick.”

“How dare you?” Loki’s voice was shaking as much as his body was but the venom in it was still obvious. “How _dare_ you go that fast?”

“It is the motorway! You’re supposed to go fast.” Thor snapped back. “I’m driving, it is my car, I will drive it as I want to.”

“You broke the speed limit!" Loki shouted back, looking a little bit like he had taken so much out of himself being sick that he might faint.

"I would have thought that you _wanted_ to get to your friend's house as soon as possible! Some so-called brother they've given me. A weedy little toe-rag who can't take driving on the motorway!"

"You are not my brother and you never will be!" Thor felt his rage and surety slipping away when he realised that Loki was actually crying. "I don't want you. I don't need you. I had two brothers and they were snatched away from me. You are _no replacement_!"

The fullness of Loki's words hit him like a ton of bricks as he recalled what Frigga had told him about Baldr and Hodr. No wonder he was unsettled and scared in a speeding car. Thor realised how thoughtless he had been and now Loki was scared and crying and it was all his fault. He did not stop to think, which was probably a good idea as he would have had no idea what to do anyway in this situation. He stepped forward instinctively and wrapped his arms around his little brother. Later he would realise that this was the first time he had thought of Loki as such without any hint of sarcasm. 

"I promise you that I will not speed again. I didn't think." He promised as he held the younger protectively. 

They stayed like that for a few long moments before Loki pulled back and smoothed an emotionless mask over his fright and grief as he usually did. Thor watched quietly as he washed his mouth out with the water and popped a stick of gum in afterwards to clear the horrible feeling and taste. 

"We should go. I dislike being late for things." Loki's voice was flat and calm again. 

As they got back in to the car, Thor pulled in to the slow lane and he realised what had unsettled him about Loki's appearance back at the house. He wore his clothes and impeccable manners as a shield. A barrier he made to hide himself away. The mask had slipped twice now in moments of great emotion and Thor decided that he wanted to get to know the real Loki that wove such a brittle shield around himself. Perhaps if he actually tried with him as Sif had suggested originally, this brothers thing might not be so bad.


	8. Enter Sigyn

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Note** : Due to the time period, House Elves are somewhat better treated but Hermione Weasley has not managed to make it law yet. However it is a bill in progress.

The rest of the trip passed in silence as Loki was apparently too embarrassed and upset to speak while Thor had no idea what to say. The only words the younger deigned to speak were directions to the house until Thor noticed something. 

"Why are we the only people here?" They had been driving along a road when traffic all turned away but Loki had insisted upon going forward. 

"They have anti-muggle charms on their lands. They tweaked them to allow you through at Mother's request."

"They actually spell non-wizards away?" Thor was getting apprehensive of these two days again.

"Many wizard houses do. We never bothered at Fensalir because of Mother's involvement in muggle business."

Then the trees lining the dirt path thinned and stopped, giving a view of a grand abode. It looked like something out of a movie that locals would call "The House of No Return" and make signs against evil towards. Still, the grounds were tended beautifully which gave it a slightly less sinister edge. 

Thor pulled up in front of the house and parked the car, swallowing down a gulp. 

"We'll probably be met by a House Elf. Try not to freak out." Loki added as a bit of an after thought and unsnapped his seat belt. 

"Why? What is a House Elf?" His question got answered as both doors opened and he looked down at a strange looking creature with huge ears that seemed to be wearing a monogrammed pillowcase. He managed to stifle his shout of surprise just in time.

"Welcome to Ogden Manor, Mister Odinson. I be named Millie and I be your personal elf for your stay." He heard Loki greeting an elf named 'Esby' in a familiar manner behind him.

"I, er, thanks?" Thor shifted uncomfortably. 

"I will take your vehicle now, your bags will meet you in your suite," the elf snapped two long, slender fingers and his car vanished. Thor began to let out a roar of indignation and shock when Loki touched his upper arm lightly.

"Georgette is perfectly safe, let us go in. I need to wash my mouth out properly." Gobsmacked by what was happening around him, Thor just nodded mutely and let Loki lead.

Inside, the elves showed them to their rooms. Thor noted that his was quite some distance away from Loki’s and far less grandly apportioned or furnished. Apparently their respect for Frigga only extended so far when her request was to house a muggle for one full night. Still the home was half what he expected and half not. He felt a bit stupid for not thinking that there would be no electricity here. 

"How do I turn the lights on without a switch?" He hissed at Loki, feeling somewhat helpless. 

"Ask a house elf," Loki suggested. "It is only for one night. Muggle technology behaves too unexpectedly around magic." He was holding a wrapped gift that he had fished out of their belongings before they had walked inside. 

"Ridiculous..." Thor moaned. 

"Anything Mister Odinson needs, just ask Millie," the elf piped up with a squeak. 

Loki disappeared in to the bathroom and freshened up before signalling for Thor to follow him. He was lead through some ornate doors and a huge ballroom was revealed to him. 

"Loki!" Squealed a young girl who hurried over instantly at the sight of him. She was slight for her age as he gathered that this was the birthday girl, with pale skin and hair the colour of set honey. "You came!"

Thor had never seen Loki greeted so enthusiastically from any other person than Frigga. He seemed to be in his element.

"Of course, my sweet Pomona. Happy Birthday." He handed her the gift and she tore it open excitedly in front of the gathering crowd. 

"You got me a purple Pygmy Puff!" She flung herself in to a tight hug with him as Thor looked on, flabbergasted. She did not seem evil, if a little smitten with his little brother. That and he wondered what the little ball of fluff was. Then it moved and he jumped in surprise. 

"Who are you?" She asked suspiciously as she noticed Thor for the first time. 

"Pomona, this is Thor Odinson and he is to be my new stepbrother when my Mother marries this Christmas." Thor bent his head to her but she frowned. 

"Oh. The muggle." She seemed to have lost all interest in him. "Muggles are boring."

Thor bit back his retort with difficulty and Loki seemed to sense his restraint.

"Not so, Thor is..." whatever he was going to say was lost when the doors opened again and a group of older girls walked in with a boy that looked like he was likely Antioch if his resemblance to Pomona was anything to go by.

"Loki! Bless Merlin you made it. Come, let me rescue you from my odious sister." Pomona stuck her tongue out at her brother and moved closer to Loki, only to have the boy swept away from her and in to an embrace with a very pretty strawberry blonde girl. 

Pomona stomped off angrily back to her younger group and Thor tried to politely avert his eyes from seeing Loki kissing the girl. After only a brief moment that felt like an age, they broke apart. 

"Sigyn, I would like to introduce you to my stepbrother-to-be, Thor Odinson." Loki still had her wrapped in the loop of his arm as she beamed up at Thor and offered her hand. Thor took it and kissed it gallantly. "Thor, this is Sigyn Mårten, my girlfriend."

"I'm glad to meet you," she told him with a striking smile. Thor was actually impressed at just how pretty a girl Loki had taken up with but kept it to himself lest he be accused of all manner of things. Sif would have told him he was being sexist for a start were she here.

"Loki has spoken of you, my lady, but I was unprepared for your beauty," he replied in his most charming voice. Antioch laughed. 

"So the muggle has pretty words. Here I thought he would bleat like a goat," his eyes glittered with malice as he looked Thor over. He calmed down by reminding himself that he could crush the poncy git's head like a grape. Wand or no wand.

"No, that is just you, Antioch," Sigyn shot back with a bite to her voice. "Luckily we all learned to speak 'goat' to communicate with you." Thor decided he liked her already and he realised why Antioch had been so keen to get Loki here if she ruled the girls. Her tone suggested that she was sharp with him often. Antioch shot Loki a look that appeared to say 'shut your woman up' but Loki pointedly ignored the silent plea and instead pulled Sigyn in a little closer. It was clear who had his backing. Thor wondered what might have been said were they not all in Antioch's home. Loki had never minced his words with _him_ and instead unleashed his vicious silver tongue. Perhaps this was his mask for those he knew well. Thor made careful note of it in his mind. 

Antioch announced that they were going in to another room to leave Pomona and her friends to her party. 

"The muggle can be taken to his room," he stated blandly at the end but Thor was sure he was eager to get rid of him.

"Nonsense, I'd like to get to know Loki's new brother better" Sigyn announced and offered her other arm to him, which he took graciously and making herself a physical link between him and Loki. She simultaneously made herself and Loki a barrier between him and Antioch. She was a shrewd diplomat when she wanted to be, it seemed, even if she was happy to let everyone know that Antioch tried her patience.

They made their way down the hallways to another large room and settled themselves. Thor was used to grandeur so it wasn't that that unsettled him, he was unused to being without the familiar trappings of non-wizard life around him. He almost felt a wave of reassurance coming from Sigyn and he smiled over at her.

After a few minutes of talking between the friends that Thor had no idea what the conversation was even about (although it sounded like a tale of Loki's mischief from school - he might have to quiz Loki on it later), Sigyn squeezed his arm gently. 

"Come, I want to get to know you better and I'm sure you already know all about his mischief making," he allowed her to pull him aside. 

"Not really," he admitted once they were out of earshot. "He set his owl on me once though."

"Really?" She seemed surprised "I suppose he doesn't feel comfortable in the new home yet, then."

That thought had not occurred to Thor, Loki had seemed to lord it around the place from the moment he arrived. Another piece to the puzzle that was his new brother.

"I suppose not. My father can be very intimidating and I could have been a little more friendly..."

"Pish. Don't worry about it, believe me when I say that Loki can be very prickly when he wants to be. I doubt he was very friendly back," she chuckled and Thor joined in, remembering Loki's first grandstanding speech to him. 

"Whatever are you telling him?" Loki called over.

"Just salacious details about you, darling," she teased in a good-natured and singsong voice and she turned back to Thor and lowered her voice. “I apologise for Antioch. He drives me up the wall even at school, but we Slytherins all tend to stick together even now. I’ll defend him to the end if someone insults him and yet I’ll happily insult him myself.”

“Are he and Loki good friends?” he worried about Loki’s taste in friend and yet his taste in girlfriend seemed pretty spot on so far. He recalled the look on Loki’s face when he had seen Sif and looked more closely at Sigyn. They looked nothing alike and yet they both had a somewhat stubborn set to their jaws and Sigyn had shown that she was willing to tell someone just what she thought like Sif did. Perhaps he liked strong and somewhat outspoken women? He fitted the new thought in to his mental picture he was building of Loki.

“Loki is Antioch’s best friend. Antioch is someone Loki protects and deals with,” she lowered her voice further and leaned in a little to near-whisper to Thor. “Loki doesn’t really have any real friends except me. Everyone here wants him for something and they cultivate friendships so that they can get what they want. I have a good feeling about you, though. Promise me you’ll look after him when I can’t.”

That seemed desperately sad to Thor. He had never had a sibling before but he had had Sif and the Three. He had always felt friendship woven in to every facet and moment of his life. He could not imagine such an existence as Loki appeared to have. It struck him that Loki must be exceptionally lonely, even when in a crowd. Sigyn was his one ally that was true from what he could tell, she seemed honest and he trusted that she was faithful to her friendship with Loki even discounting the romantic part of their bond. There was no lie in her eyes, tone or expression that he could tell.

“Miss Mårten, I give you my word.” He promised her in a whisper that carried a great weight he seemed destined now to bear.

“Thor Odinson, I think I can safely state that I think we shall be great friends.”


	9. Everything about the girl

It seemed like some of the other girls were interested by Sigyn's ease with the muggle and they filtered over. She introduced them all and they seemed to be mostly torn between interest and revulsion at Thor at first and he felt a little like he was an exhibit in a zoo. Especially with the way the brunette named Olive was gawping at him.

“Heidi, Althea, Olive, Margaret, August, this is Thor Odinson,” Sigyn pointed each one out and Thor tried to remember which name belonged to which witch. He was sure he would fail and decided to let Sigyn do most of the talking unless he was asked a direct question.

"Quintius and Ragmar started on about their plans for next year’s Quidditch training regimen, we got bored," August moaned. 

"You do not like Squidish?" Thor asked, attempting to be nice to Loki's friends. 

"'Quidditch' and I do, but not discussed with minutiae like those two do it." Thor nodded and tried out the word again, trying to commit it to memory. He noticed that Loki was ignoring the discussion beside him and watching Thor interact with the girls - as was Antioch. The boy with honey blond hair was flicking his eyes between Loki and Thor and the elder did not like the calculating look in them.

"What kind of things do muggles do for fun?" Olive asked, curiously. 

"Didn't you pay any attention in 'Muggle Studies'?" Sigyn chuckled good-naturedly at her rather eager friend, a knowing little smile playing around her lips.

"Not a word," Olive shot back with a grin at Thor. "This is different."

"Well, I usually hang out with my friends Sif, Fandral, Hogun and Volstagg. We go clubbing or on holidays, drinking and dancing or to restaurants. We're all joining the army in autumn." He told the interested gaggle of witches. 

"You're a soldier? Why?" Another girl he thought he remembered was called Heidi asked. 

"I went to a military academy for school. It was to learn discipline before I joined my father's company. That and I’ve always been a physical sort of person. I wanted to serve my country before I became a pencil pusher,” he told them, not even sure they would understand the term ‘pencil pusher’.

“I’ll bet you are,” Olive replied and as Sigyn snorted in to her pumpkin juice, Thor went a very interesting shade of red. 

“Don’t mind Olive, she is a walking hormone bomb,” August piped up. “You don’t need to slobber all over him like he is descended from Veela.”

“What is a Veela?” Thor asked, confused, but he got ignored in favour of a subject change.

“Doesn’t anyone in your family have magic at all? You’re totally muggle?” Althea asked, Thor was pleased as he seemed to be getting the right names to the right witch.

“If they do, I don’t know about it. Although, I did not know Frigga was a witch until she got engaged to my father and I have known her since I was a child,” he admitted.

“Well, that’ll be the Statute of Secrecy. It doesn’t apply to you any more because you have magic in the family, even if it is only married in.” August replied, almost sounding like she was rolling her eyes through her speech alone.

A bell rang and they all stood up as one, Thor following suit.

“Dinner is served in the main hall,” came a little squeaking voice and Thor noticed Millie the House Elf had appeared as if out of nowhere at his side.

“Mister Odinson, would you like to come with Millie…” she started, but Loki frowned and moved over.

“Why would he go with you? He is to sit with the rest of us, is he not?” Thor realised that he had been intended to eat alone and away from all of the others. Loki’s words may have been phrased as a question but it was clear through his tone that it was not.

“Master Ogden ordered Millie to make the Odinson comfortable in the parlour,” she squeaked and Thor felt sorry for the poor thing being put in such an awkward position.

“Thor is to be my brother, he sits with us,” Loki replied archly as Antioch hurried over. Thor felt a little tiny flicker of happiness in Loki’s words and claim even though they had argued the point mere hours ago in the car.

“Master Ogden ordered Millie…” the poor elf protested, looking concerned.

“Loki, my father will not seat a muggle at the high table,” Antioch cut across, not even caring that Thor was standing right there.

“Millie,” Loki turned his back on Antioch. “Please relocate my meal to the parlour.”

“Mine too,” Sigyn and Olive piped up simultaneously.

“You know what, me too,” August chimed in even though the others remained silent.

“I won’t have this in my house!” Antioch screamed, looking furious.

“Then we will no longer be in your house,” Loki retorted. “Millie, please can you retrieve my belongings and Thor’s car. We will meet you outside.” 

“I’m coming with you,” Sigyn decided. “Get my things also.” The house elf squeaked, nodded and disappeared immediately.

“I don’t mean to come between friends,” Thor apologised, trying to smooth over the very uncomfortable scene.

“You haven’t,” Loki said smoothly, giving Antioch a very pointed glare of disapproval. “If the Ogdens wish to give offence to myself and to my mother, the Lady Jörðsdotter as well as her husband-to-be’s son and heir then that is their choice.”

“I’ll speak with my father,” Antioch stammered, but Loki ignored him and swept out of the room, Thor and Sigyn following him.

The next hour was a blur of angry retorts, the poor house elves hurrying this way and that and somehow, Thor ended up with a gaggle of witches and Loki in his car, buying them all dinner on his credit card. Once it was clear that Loki had refused to stay and that Sigyn was sticking with him, Olive and August had also retrieved their things which caused the other girls to follow.

Now, they were all at The Crab, not far from Beedon but far enough that he hoped the Ogdens would not find them and rain down magical retribution on them all as they ate. Thor did not want them all to be hungry and it had been decided that he would drive them all to his own home where they could be sent home by Frigga tomorrow. He rather was hoping Loki would handle telling his mother that he had somehow managed to cause an inter-family rift just by his mere presence with Thor far from the vicinity.

The girls had to be hushed every now and then as they exclaimed over many little things in the restaurant and the waitress had arched an eyebrow at Thor when one of them cried out that ‘muggles aren’t as uncouth and uncivilised as I thought’ mid-meal.

As they got back to Gladsheim, they seemed impressed by the home that Thor resided in. The general consensus was that, apart from the obvious muggle trappings like the electric gate and the lights lining the driveway, it could easily be a wizard’s manor.

As they went inside the home, Thor quickly told the servants to make up some beds for Loki’s guests and ensure there was plenty of food for breakfast before shepherding everyone in to a large guest room to relax.

Thor fielded all sorts of quick-fire questions about muggles and his home, answering what he could (although a few stories were edited for content) and he spotted Loki and Sigyn sneaking off to the corner of the room together, heads close and smiles fond. When their lips met, he averted his eyes to give them a little privacy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I'm not 100% happy with this chapter, however, I needed these events to happen and these characters to pop up as they'll be referenced later. I haven't had much time this week to write as it has been a combo of super busy and bad, but I hope it gives a bit more insight in to the dynamics of Slytherin House for this year group.
> 
> In better news, Jane and Darcy will be making a return in the next chapter!


	10. A rose by any other name

Thor awoke to find himself wrapped in a soft and fuzzy green blanket (little silver snakes embroidered all around the edges) and with a strange feeling on his face. Blinking his eyes a bit and trying to wake up, he noticed the sleeping female forms all around him, under similar blankets. 

He then spotted Loki and Sigyn snuggled under the same blanket, he curled in to her while she seemed to be holding him safe from the world even in his sleep. His heart twisted to see it. Loki clearly craved affection and Thor decided he would be sure to give as much as he could. 

Getting up, he stretched and left the room for his own, cursing loudly when he looked in the mirror to clean his furry-feeling teeth and realised that someone had put make up on him in his slumber. He got in the shower and scrubbed at his face (getting soap painfully in his eyes) and then got dressed and directed the servants to ready breakfast. 

Heading back to the room they had apparently all had a slumber party in but he remembered little of how he had ended up in there with them, he saw that they were all beginning to stir.

"Ladies - and Loki - breakfast is being prepared, I will show you to rooms where you can freshen up." A big smile graced his face when he deduced that he was the only 'morning person' there through their grumbles.

Getting the group all shepherded to the showers, showing them how to work them and in to the breakfast room took some doing, but eventually they managed it. That was when Odin and Frigga returned from Zürich.

"It would seem that we have guests," Frigga said mildly but Odin watched them all warily through his one eye.

"We made the decision to leave Antioch's, but if I might ask to explain later, Mother?" Loki asked. "Could you please apparate everyone back home after we've eaten?"

"Of course," she smiled, flicking her eyes between her son and Thor and he could have sworn there was a knowing twinkle in her eyes.

The guests left, Thor being surprised at a couple of hugs and cheek kisses he received from a couple of the girls. Odin had huffed a greeting at Sigyn upon their introduction but Frigga had embraced her like a daughter and shared little whispers that caused Loki to frown and whine at them childishly and full of embarrassment. It was all very domestic and Thor found himself loving it. It felt more like he had a real family than any moment he could remember when his true parents were still together. 

"I won't forget our promise," Sigyn had whispered in his ear before she had kissed his cheek and disappeared. 

When Frigga had returned and hushed their explanations, Thor had been surprised. 

"My dear, I saw it. I had a vision and let it take its course." She had explained. Thor's head had hurt when she explained about being a Seer but that she could not influence the future as nothing was certain. There were so many different possible futures that it was impossible for her to meddle and risk ruin.

"Phillidus and I will be having words, but forget the matter for today. You two go out and enjoy yourselves."

"Loki needs some new clothes," Thor interjected before Loki could make any other plans "I can take him."

"A brilliant idea, we will see you for dinner," she kissed both of them on the forehead, stroked their hair and then followed Odin from the room. Thor noted that his father seemed fatigued and did not call after him. He needed his rest, sometimes he forgot that his father was no longer a young man. 

"You don't have to-"

"I want to. Anyway, you do need more clothes. You're going to grow out of those soon and you're at school all year. The local shopping centre has a lot of good things." He swept his brother in to a one-armed hug. "It is my turn to show you my world."

"I know about muggles already," Loki sighed but otherwise did not protest.

"Ah, but this is different! Come, Loki, let us enjoy this beautiful day."

________

"There is no way you're getting me to even try that on," Loki retorted with a murderous glare at Thor two hours in to their shopping trip, holding a pair of shiny trousers up.

"You know, you're supposed to actually come home with clothes after a shopping trip for clothes," Thor pointed out Loki's single bag. "Not just a green scarf. What is it with you and green?"

"Green and silver are Slytherin House's colours, plus I look good in it."

"But-"

"Thor?" A girl's voice cut in to their conversation. Thor recognised it immediately and whirled around with a great big smile. 

"Jane! How are you?"

"I'm good. You? You were pretty beat up last time I saw you..."

"You _did_ hit him with a car," pointed out another young American. 

"Darcy. A pleasure to see you again." Thor beamed at them both. "Loki, these are the people that took me to the hospital. Jane, Darcy, this is my brother Loki."

"Charmed, I'm sure," Thor was sure that he was not charmed in the slightest by his tone. "Tell me more about his being struck by a car, he had inferred it was my owl Hela's fault he was hospitalised."

"Ah." Thor shifted awkwardly. "Well, I was treated for both..."

"Hela and I were punished for that," Loki narrowed his eyes and Darcy cut in before a row could erupt in the middle of the store.

"You have a pet owl? Neat."

"I do. She is very loyal," his tone was still angry but he was not storming off so Thor decided he had got away with it. 

"I'm so sorry we had to leave, I was - we were - worried," Jane told Thor and his attention was absorbed by her sweet face.

"I am fine, really," he assured her. "I'm made of sterner stuff."

"Yeah, you're pretty cut," Darcy interjected, reminding Thor of their company. "Your brother isn't. You don't wanna be buff like big bro?"

Loki glared at them all in turn.

"No. Excuse me," he turned and went deeper into the store and began rifling through a rack.

"He is an intellectual, not really much interested in working out," Thor confided. "And probably hungry, he gets moody when hungry." 

Okay so he had not shown evidence of that, but it suited his purpose for now. Loki seemed to default to a cranky mood anyway. Thor was trying but it was hard to get a genuine smile out of the younger teen unless his mother or Sigyn was around.

"Let me buy you lunch," he offered "as a thank you for taking me to A and E."

"Sure. Even though I sent you there..." Jane accepted and he was transfixed by her smile. 

"Loki! We're going for lunch." Thor called over and grinned at the younger's glare of death.

"Little bro has quite the pout," Darcy remarked. 

"He does. My Loki is difficult to please," Thor agreed and they waited for the boy to catch up to them but his attention had been snapped back to the beauty beside him. 


	11. I do not understand this English that you mangle

They had sat down to lunch in a nice restaurant just outside the shopping complex. Thor was pleased that Darcy was with them as he wanted to talk to Jane but worried that Loki would feel left out. He had asked her what she did for a living and he had become utterly transfixed by her story of coming here to work with a renowned scientist named Dr. Selvig, only one year on from completing her doctorate and becoming an MPhys. He realised that made her older than him by five years but he did not care in the slightest as a tingling feeling settled in to his chest as she spoke so passionately about her work. 

"London is not the best place to see the stars because of the city lights but there are a lot of places near here that give an almost perfect view. The University here at Queen Mary’s is amazing..." She told him. “I don’t feel like I need to hurry back to Culver when I have so much here.”

"What about you, little bro? Where do you study?" Darcy addressed Loki as he was sitting looking bored and playing idly with his butter knife, with occasional glares at Thor and Jane before he levelled one at Darcy for the spontaneous nickname. "You're still in school, right?"

"A boarding school in the wilds of Scotland. Only those who are invited may attend," he retorted, attempting to shut down the conversation. 

"Sounds very hoity-toity to me," Darcy replied, ignoring the possibility of death by butter knife.

"It likely would... to an American." Loki replied snidely and Thor rode in like the conversation cavalry. 

"Loki, these are my friends," a 'please be nice' tone to his voice.

"You be nice to them, then," the knife slapped down on the faux wood table top.

"I was nice to _your_ friends." Jane and Darcy busied themselves with pretending to peruse the menu as an argument looked likely to unfold. 

"Sigyn was determined to like you, the rest follow her like sheep."

"I was even nice to Antioch."

"Lots of niceness all 'round," Darcy interjected. "You know, all this food seems a bit too fancy for me. You guys have the sea bass, I think I'll just get a greasy burger. Loki, want to come with me? I don't know my way around here. We can leave the lovebirds to it."

Loki agreed and Thor was certain that it was only because he was angry as Loki seemed to have a penchant for the finer things, although, he could not deny that sitting with Jane just the two of them was a prospect he would give up easily. 

"Fine, but I suggest you keep your mangling of my language to a minimum." The younger stood and picked up his single bag.

"No can do, lil bro, it mangles itself on the way out." Loki looked horrified as Darcy looped her arm through his and led him out of the restaurant, his protestations getting quieter as they left.

"I apologise, he can be difficult even when in a good mood," Thor told Jane as the waiter took their order. 

"So can Darcy. I'm sure she can handle him," Jane replied fondness for her quirky intern in her voice. "So what do you do when not being mown down by girls in parking lots?"

"I graduated this year from The Duke of York's Royal Military School with honours and I start a special military tour soon before I go in to business school."

"Wow. That is certainly different to the usual way of education that I hear," Jane complimented.

"I want to serve my country before I spend all day signing paper at a desk," he agreed. "It is a bit of a tradition in my family. My Uncles Vili and Vé stayed in the military when my father inherited the company though."

"You guys seem to really love your traditions here," she then smiled at the waiter who took their orders.

"Got to stick to tradition or you lose it forever," Thor mused. 

"I like that thought," Jane told him and he felt a warm glow inside. He was worried she might just think of him as a jock type but she seemed interested in his thoughts as well.

He told her more of stories of his childhood and of his friends while she gave a few of her own. Their experiences could not have been more different, but it only served to make it more interesting to both parties. Their food arrived and the conversation changed to Loki.

"You said Loki was your step-brother the first time we met. When did that all happen?" The surly teen had not featured in Thor's stories. 

"About a month ago my father and his mother got engaged. It has only been the last few days that he has even really spoken to me," Thor admitted. "I did not even know he existed until recently, even though I've known Frigga for years."

"That is pretty sudden to get a brother..." she seemed thoughtful. 

"I think he was even less happy about the whole thing than me. I upset him greatly the other day and I realised my error and how belligerent I'd been. I am the elder, I have to look after my little brother. Even if he is tetchy."

"You might be good for him," between much daintier bites than Thor's own. "You might bring some sun in to his life. He seems to need it."

_______

"Burger or noodles?" Darcy asked as they explored their food options.

"Neither. I am not hungry." He replied, already looking to escape the girl and maybe get a cab home. This was tedious and he wanted to go home and be alone with his pets. Part of his mind whispered that he wanted Thor with him, away from this girl that he clearly was head over heels for already. Thor looked at Jane the way he looked at Sigyn. A tendril of jealousy worked its way in to his heart. So recently had he pushed Thor away and now he wanted him near. The blond oaf just drew people to him. Even people of the shadows, like Loki.

"Oh come on, I'm starving and your portions here are just too small," Darcy whined. "We can order two and I can eat your one."

"This would explain a lot," Loki drawled. "Anyway, if you want food, I might as well just take you to Nando's."

They made their way in to the street side restaurant, Loki ordering only a brewed tea while Darcy went to town on the spicy chicken.  
"So, what's your story?" She asked curiously as she decimated her chips. 

"I have no story. My mother is marrying Thor's father and so I am here. Otherwise I might be at home being left alone."

"You share a lot," she retorted. "Are you going to ask me why I'm here?"

"No."

"I came here to get six college credits," she began, ignoring his negative reply and apparent lack of interest. "It isn't really my field, but it came with free travel, room and food. Couldn't say 'no' to that. Plus Jane is cool. Except when she gets super involved and forgets to eat and I have to wean her off of coffee so she can get some sleep. Girl is dedicated."

"I do not care. Keep her away from my brother. He is going in to the military. He needs to focus."

"I'll tell her but just so you know, Jane kind of does what she wants."

"As do I."

"Is that a threat?"

"I don't threaten. Think of it as a firm suggestion. Enjoy your chicken." Loki stood up and then swept from the room, going to hail a taxicab home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wrote most of this in a hotel on a business trip. A very odd experience.


	12. Proud of my boys

Loki got home and immediately sought refuge in his room. He had called a taxicab company that serviced Vanir Productions and then just charged it to the company. He was not about to spend his own money because Thor wanted to romance some girl.

He lost himself in his books, immersing himself in animagi theorems. He had a natural aptitude for transfiguration and transmogrification and he was determined to crack the secret of multiple transformations. If he could inhabit more forms, he would be much more powerful than any other animagus that had ever gone before. 

_Imbibe the living gold for only then may you access the perfect state._

A term he had seen in many different ways and wordings before. Just as he started to try to figure out what living gold was, how to get his hands on some and then to safely take it in to himself, the door opened.

"There you are, I was worried." His mother came in to the room and swept over to him, gathering him in a full body hug. "Thor phoned and said that you were missing from the shopping centre."

"I'm fine, Mother," he told her, somewhat muffled by her dress. She pulled back and gently tucked a stray lock of hair behind his ear. "I was left in the company of what I believe was a deranged American hipster. So I got a taxi home."

"Why? Where was Thor?" her voice concerned.

"Slobbering all over the hipster's pretty scientist friend," he sighed "it was obnoxious."

"Thor has a lady friend?" Frigga had a gleam in her eyes that Loki did not much like and all concern had left her voice to be replaced with amusement.

"It would seem so. They were too busy staring at each other to notice anything around them so if they are not together, they probably soon will be."

"She must come to dinner tonight, with Odin away I will enjoy the company."

"Must she?" He knew his whine was unseemly and a little childish but he really did not want her here, it would only legitimise her in Thor’s eyes as someone who could literally be brought home to Mother even if Frigga was not yet his step-mother officially. "I don't think I can stomach eating anything while he goes goo-goo eyed at some girl."

"You've clearly never seen yourself and Sigyn when you think no one is watching," Frigga teased as she stroked his hair. "What is her name?"

"Jane," he realised that he had not bothered to get her last name. "Although I admit she seems smarter than I thought he would go for. He struck me as the trophy wife sort."

"People can often surprise you if you only give them the chance, my darling," she kissed his forehead gently and lovingly "I must call Thor back, he was worried about you and I think a little scared of telling me that you were missing. Tonight will be perfect, Odin has already left for the airport and he won't be back for a few days."

Two hours later, Loki found himself standing outside to greet the three that he had abandoned at the shopping centre after a shower and change of clothes. He turned his scowl in to a pained grimace at a look from his mother and she seemed to decide that was the best she was likely to get out of him.

"Welcome to Gladsheim," Frigga greeted cordially as they got out of Thor's car and looked in wonder at the place. Loki ignored Darcy's impressed whistle. It seemed they had been unaware of the grandeur of the home until they pulled up.

"Thank you for the invitation to dinner," Jane replied politely, but clearly feeling a little awkward amongst all of the obvious wealth and splendour of the property even though she had just got out of a silver Bentley.

"Jane Foster, this is Lady Frigga Jörðsdotter - Loki's mother and to be my step-mother when she marries my father this winter. Lady Frigga Jörðsdotter, this is Doctor Jane Foster, currently working for Doctor Selvig at Queen Mary's University and her intern, Darcy Lewis." Thor was effusive and beaming, his hands spreading wide as he introduced everyone in the proper society manner.

Loki scowled harder at Darcy as she gave him a sardonic little wave.

"It is lovely to meet you both, I am sure that this will prove to be an interesting evening."

They all made their way inside and Loki carefully avoided Thor's attempts to catch his eye. Frigga was already in conversation with Jane, asking about her studies. She had a little twinkle in her eyes that usually meant she was up to something. 

"There you are," came a familiar voice from the summer parlour and Loki whirled around at it and saw someone in front of the fireplace dusting a little soot from her sleeve. Relief flooded through his veins as he took her in.

"Sigyn?" 

"Hello, dear. All of our guests have now arrived. I believe we shall be a merry party." Frigga greeted Sigyn over Jane’s head with a warm, motherly smile. Loki knew she wholeheartedly approved of Sigyn’s influence on him.

He wanted to hurry over to Sigyn's side and the comfort that she gave him, but felt awkward with the onlookers. She clearly felt no such nerves or compunctions and she moved over and looped an arm through Loki's own before giving him a kiss on the cheek, her fingers finding his and twining them together supportively. 

"Jane, Darcy, this is Sigyn Mårten, my son's girlfriend. Sigyn, this is Doctor Jane Foster and her intern Darcy Lewis - friends of Thor. Now we make six, a much better number for dinner than five, do you not agree?" Loki shot her a very brief but grateful look and he knew his mother had seen it. Bringing Sigyn here meant that he would not be left as an awkward fifth wheel. His mother might be fond of her little machinations, but they always ended up with someone benefitting from her quiet meddling.

"The more the merrier," Darcy agreed.

"My Lady, the dinner is being served in the breakfast room as you requested," a servant interrupted with a curtsey.

"Thank you, Hannah," Frigga smiled and indicated that they should all follow. "If you need anything this evening, ask Hannah. She is a lovely, steady girl. We took her on at her mother's request for some work experience ten years ago and she is still with us now. We brought her with us from our home, Fensalir. There is nothing better than being surrounded by loyal, dependable friends. In fact, her mother is our Head Chef and her brother is an under-gardener there."

As they all paired off, Darcy going alongside Frigga as the others coupled up, Loki pulled Sigyn to the back and kissed her a little needily. When they broke apart, she used her free hand to cup his cheek.

"We should go in, but you can tell me all about it later," she promised. "My father is letting me stay over."

“He is?” Loki looked surprised. 

“Well, your mother is here to stop us from sneaking off naughtily, isn’t she?” Sigyn chuckled. They had not yet got to that stage of their relationship but Loki had to admit, the notion had crossed his mind more often recently of taking that next step. “Come, let us go in and meet these new muggles.”

“Why do I get the feeling you will end up loving them and making my life a misery?”

“Because you know me too well and you know I love being sociable and annoying you by making _you_ be sociable as well?” She pressed her lips to the end of his nose and he wrinkled it in annoyance. “Come on. The sooner we go in, the sooner it’ll all be over.”

“Liar.”

“I love you, too.”

________________

Thor had been just about able to tear his gaze from Jane to look at Loki a few times during dinner, offering him bright smiles that got either ignored or sullen looks. He did note though, that Loki kept looking at Sigyn thoughtfully and occasionally a little flush would creep up his neck. He was not sure why, but he was sure that it was not just because Darcy and Sigyn were getting along like a house on fire and making all sorts of silly jokes. He liked seeing everyone interact like this and it made him utterly reject the way he had initially behaved upon learning more people were to enter his life.

Once, it had been Odin, Fjörgyn and himself. Then his mother had left and it had been just the two of them. Then, Sif, Fandral, Hogun and Volstagg had entered his life and they were all he needed. He was sure of it back then.

Now, though, now he had Odin, Frigga and Loki. Now he had his four friends as well as these new ones. He had Jane, although he was not sure what they might be to each other yet, he definitely liked her and he thought that perhaps she liked him but he did not want to jump to conclusions and blow a potential friendship by trying to kiss her. He had Darcy by extension of Jane and he had this funny little witch Sigyn.

Now that he saw more of her, he could see how she and Loki fit. He could see how he grounded her a little and how she lifted him and could coax smiles and actual displays of affection from him. He looked fondly at her as she giggled with Darcy over a quip the American had just made but she shot him a very brief look of annoyance and he felt it keenly. That was definitely a pointed look she gave him, though it lasted less than a second. What had he done?

Just as Hannah came in to clear the plates, Jane said that she needed to visit the ladies’ room and Sigyn offered to show her the way. Thor decided it would be a good point to visit the men’s while the table was being cleared. On his way back, he found himself confronted with the short witch.

“What did you do?” she asked.

“I do not know what you refer to?” Thor asked, perplexed.

“You promised me that you would look after him and yet when Frigga flooed us,” Thor decided to not stop her to ask what ‘flooing’ was “she asked me to come and stay the night and I knew something was wrong with Loki.”

“We went shopping. I tried to buy him some new clothes to wear at school and he only bought one scarf, then we went to lunch but Loki came home...” it dawned on him then that Loki must have taken it harder than he had realised. He told himself he must do better at this brother thing, but it was all so new to him.

“I’m not saying that Loki needs to be your life to the exclusion of everything else, that is just daft and unrealistic,” she told him. “But don’t forget that even if Jane is The One forever, even if she is only The One for a week, Loki is your brother for life. Don’t worry though, he will get this lecture as well. I doubt he behaved very well either.”

Thor smiled at her, thought behind his eyes and he was relieved when she smiled back.

“Come on, pudding is my favourite,” she confided and they walked back in to the breakfast room together.

________________

After the Eton Mess they had had for pudding, they had all gone and sat in a parlour, talking. Thor had been impressed by Frigga, Loki and Sigyn’s knowledge of the stars and Jane, it seemed, was delighted to find others that knew their constellations.

“We learn astronomy at school,” was all Loki offered by way of explanation.

Thor had alternated between listening and cracking jokes with Darcy, the two of them feeling like laymen around these bookish types. Time had moved inexorably on though and it came to be time to say goodbye.

Thor excused them all and took Jane and Darcy home. Dropping them off at the house they shared with Doctor Selvig in Guildford, he felt a pang at having to say goodbye. Today had been near perfect.

“Jane, Darcy, you are always welcome at Gladsheim, as is your friend Selvig,” he told them gallantly.

“Yeah, next time? Warn people you have a giganto house that has it's own name and an actual _Lady_ for a mom before you spring it on them,” Darcy said, raising her eyebrows and disappearing in to the house with a backwards wave.

“I am sorry, I did not think.” Thor told Jane.

“Well, the Bentley kind of gave away that you had money, but seeing the home was a bit of a shock,” she admitted with a little giggle “I got so terrified of your mom at first, especially when you called her ‘Lady’.”

“My real mum is worth being terrified to meet,” Thor said quietly “but Frigga is different. She loved you, I could tell.”

“I really like your family, Thor,” she said and leaned in as if giving a conspiratorial whisper “even Loki.”

Thor laughed and then lifted her hand to his lips and kissed the knuckles.

“Until next time, Jane Foster,” he slipped his phone number in to her hand as he lowered it. Then his eyes went as wide as dinner plates when she suddenly kissed him passionately and within a moment, he relaxed in to it and kissed her back.

“Until next time,” she promised. “It’s a deal.”

________________

Loki had changed in to his green satin pyjamas and was laying awake, staring at the ceiling. He could not get his mind to stop churning and his heart beat a little faster. The tip of his nose still tingled where Sigyn had kissed it and before he knew it, he got out of bed and carefully padded silently down the hall.

Reaching the guest room that Frigga had put Sigyn in for the night, he quietly turned the handle and slipped inside. He found her sitting on the edge of her bed, brushing the curls out of her more-strawberry-than-blonde hair.

“Oh dear, naughty boy out of bed alert,” she joked when she saw him but slid up anyway so that he could sit beside her. He took her hair brush and finished the job silently, letting the strands slip silkily through his long fingers. When he was done, he set the brush down almost reverently and she turned to face him.

“You love me.” He stated, his voice quiet and unsure.

“I do.” She confirmed.

“You’ve never said that before.”

“No, I did once. We were five and Antioch had broken the leg off of my Ginny Weasley action figure and bent her broomstick. I cried and you held it in your hands carefully and you concentrated so hard…” she looked wistful at the memory “then you opened your hands again and I had my Holyhead Harpy back in one piece. I told you then that I loved you and you just got embarrassed.”

“Then I chased Antioch across the garden and he got kicked by that goose,” Loki smiled as the memory resurfaced “I remember.”

“He cried so hard. I knew then that you would always protect me and I knew I loved you,” she confided. “I promised myself I would always be faithful to you and our friendship.” 

Loki just sat for a moment, looking pensive.

“I didn’t tell you then or any day since, but…” he looked up at her, his face full of emotion in a way she had not seen in many years since he learned to close himself off. “I love you. I always will.”

________________

“I hope the two of you are dressed,” Frigga’s voice woke them and was likely supposed to sound annoyed, but the sides of her lips pulled up in a smile. Loki huffed at her for waking him up, then threw the covers off to prove that they were, in fact, still fully dressed in their night things.

“Good. I shall see you at breakfast then.” She left the room and Sigyn snuggled more in to Loki for warmth now that the duvet was on the floor.

“I suppose we ought to get up,” she kissed him and the two of them indulged for a bit as their minds and bodies woke up.

“If we don’t get out of bed now, she will come looking for us again,” he reminded as he broke the embrace.

“We’ll be at school soon, just a little longer before you can’t even get in to my dorm to do this - and you _know_ I’m not coming in to your’s overnight.”

“Summer is fleeting and the autumn dawns anew,” he said as he pulled himself out of bed and headed for the door to go back to his own rooms.

“Shut up and go get dressed, you over-dramatic idiot.” She responded with a smile as she put the duvet back where it was supposed to be.

Loki turned his smile, a genuine one rather than a smirk, to the door and left the room. His heart felt lighter than air and he let the feeling stay with him before he lost it to his usual dissatisfaction. Today was going to be a good day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If anyone can find the little references I have thrown in here, I will dedicate a chapter to you.
> 
> Happy hunting!


	13. The forging of the bond

Two weeks had passed since Jane had kissed him and Thor was still dancing up on Cloud Nine. A few more kisses had followed along with some dates. Loki had even learned to tolerate Darcy a bit more and could be trusted to not take off without them when they were all together. Thor was sure that whatever Sigyn had said had done the trick. Of course, Darcy making comments about Loki's hot girlfriend only went down well about half of the time, but she seemed to be enjoying herself so no one stopped her.

Today, he was introducing his new girlfriend (his heart fluttering at the new official title as of the previous night) to his friends. He had decided to treat everyone out to a slap-up meal. Loki had come along at Thor's invitation (without even needing Frigga encouraging him to go). It had been a long time since he had liked someone beyond just getting together for a night or long weekend and he wanted to show that Jane was probably a long-term prospect. 

As they walked in to Gaucho, the views over Tower Bridge beside them, Thor introduced Jane and Darcy to his friends. He took pleasure in calling Jane his girlfriend and seeing the looks on their faces as he did so, especially at the title ‘Doctor’.

"Are you not forgetting something, Thor?" Sif asked even as Loki took the seat beside her wordlessly. 

"No?" He tried to think back over his introductions. 

"We're probably going to be away for training soon. This isn't really the time to start a relationship."

"I have already told Jane of our plans," he told her cheerfully. "We have decided to try anyway."

The waitress came over and began walking them through the wine list and the different cuts of meat. They all ordered and Thor noticed Loki and Sif exchanging quick words behind their menus and wondered what they might be talking about, before he heard names of dishes and realised they were just discussing what to order. 

"Tell me, Thor, how did you meet such a lovely young lady?" Fandral asked as their menus were taken away from the table. 

"Well, friends, I was coming to see you when I stopped for some beverages. The next thing I knew, I was faced with an angel surrounded by light," Thor told them - to which Darcy chuckled and Jane rolled her eyes before adding. 

"I accidentally hit him with my car in the parking lot. The light must have been my headlights."

"It makes the vision no less true," Thor protested with a grin.

Fandral roared with mirth, Volstagg chuckled and even Hogun quirked up a small, short smile. Sif looked both irritated and a little incredulous and she glanced at Loki, who just inclined his head once to confirm the tale. 

"Don't forget the part of the tale where you blamed your injuries on Hela," Loki added with his tone soft, silky and full of danger. Thor immediately felt a tendril of fear in his gut. So his brother had not forgiven nor forgotten, which did not bode well for his well-being.

"Well, she _did_ scratch up his handsome face," Fandral retorted with a dismissive chuckle.

"She had her reasons. A bird scratch is significantly different to being struck by even a slow-moving vehicle." Loki looked like he was getting himself worked up until Sif laid a comforting hand on his forearm.

"Well, I for one, think that-"

"For shame, Fandral, such lies. You never think," Sif cut him off and he heeded it. 

Their appetisers came and Thor noticed Hogun was being even more quiet than usual as they all praised the starters. Darcy was both fighting with and declaring undying love for the provoleta while Sif and Loki guarded their plates of ceviche from Volstagg's fingers. 

"Hogun, my friend, what is troubling you?" Thor asked as he watched the other check his phone again.

"Aayala," he said slowly. "She took a fall yesterday, a bad one. They said she should have broken both of her legs at least but she bounced. She says she is fine."

"If she is fine, why do you worry?" Volstagg asked as he finished his third starter dish. 

"Put it down to luck. She avoided injury so all is well," Fandral assured his taciturn friend.

"Who is Aayala? His sister?" Jane asked Thor in a whisper and as he turned to reply, he noticed Loki looking at Hogun thoughtfully. 

"His cousin. She might as well be his little sister. They're very close. She talks where he is silent, a perfect fit."

"Oh." Jane let out a quiet giggle as Aayala must be a very chatty sort.

The starters were cleared away and drinks refilled as they waited for the mains to arrive, wine for all except Loki who had a glass of lemon water being underage.

"Loving the drinking age being eighteen here," Darcy exclaimed as she picked up her refilled glass.

"So what is it that you do, Jane? To have the title of doctor." Sif asked, mirroring Darcy. 

"I'm an astrophysicist, actually. I was asked to help Dr. Selvig with his work at Queen Mary's although I'm usually based at Culver." She replied. "Darcy here is my intern."

"Sounds bookish," Volstagg laughed "You sure you want to date this oaf?"

“Hey!” Thor protested loudly as their main dishes arrived.

“Come now, Thor is not stupid,” Fandral admonished before smiling cheekily and tipping his wine to the waitress “he just can’t add two and two together without a calculator!”

Thor could not help but join in the laughter that followed, he knew it was all good-natured. Friends were only friends in his eyes if they knew how to throw a good little insult or two and he certainly had thrown some back at each of them in their time.

“Actually I was pretty surprised at how many constellations Loki knows,” Jane complimented as the laughter bubbled back down “he really knows his stuff.”

“Like I said, I learn it at school,” he told her and Thor felt the awkwardness creep in as Jane and Darcy did not know about Loki’s school but the others did and in such a public place was not the right place to bring it up.

“I approve of such a well-rounded syllabus,” she told him kindly.

“I don’t. Not when astronomy is held at midnight on top of a freezing cold tower,” he replied as he cut in to his steak.

“When does your next term start again?” Sif asked him.

“September first, same every year,” he told her. 

“Frigga asked me if I wanted to come and see you off,” Thor said, excitedly. 

“It’ll be an eye opener.”

_______

“Are you sure?” Thor asked as Sif offered to take Loki home.

“My home is not far from yours and I do not feel up to a bar tonight,” she assured him. “It is a long way to travel alone at this time of night.”

“All right. I will see you in the morning, brother,” Thor told Loki with a little slur in his voice and Loki wordlessly offered him a mint. “Hint taken! I could not resist that dessert.”

As they said their goodbyes to the others, Loki popped a mint in to his own mouth and allowed Sif to take one.

“He really likes her, doesn’t he?” Sif asked Loki as they turned and headed for the river. Sif had expressed an interest in getting some air as the others had made plans to move on to the bar scene. Loki did not stop her, he was enjoying her company and knew she needed a little conversation and reflection time right now. 

“The HMS Belfast, the Tower of London and Tower Bridge all in one view,” she sighed as they took in the vista before them.

“With the Shard right there and the Gherkin in the background. Millennia in one look,” he replied, loving the image of the old and the new, buildings erected a thousand years apart in the same eye line. They took it in, listening to the sounds of revelry around the river.

“Are you okay?” he asked quietly, looking up from where their arms were on the stone wall and in to her beautiful face. That face captivated him every time he looked upon it, striking desire in his body even though he would not act on it. For one, Sif would probably not appreciate it if he did. She loved Thor and he was only fifteen himself. That and he had Sigyn, but he could not deny his attraction to the striking woman before him.

“Honestly? Yes - and no,” she answered, giving him a sad smile and then looking back out over the rippling waters of the Thames. “I started having feelings for Thor after I returned from my year abroad in France. I had always thought boys just sparring partners until I went away and when I returned… he had grown up. He was different. I sparred with my friends and they all seemed to resent being beaten more than before my trip. Not Thor, though. He just laughed when I beat him in to the dirt and congratulated my arm. He nicknamed me the Goddess of War that day.”

“He is the only one who has never questioned your ability based on your gender?” Loki asked.

“No, Fandral, Volstagg and Hogun never really did either but I never developed those sorts of feelings for them, even though I love them dearly. Even Fandral,” she added the last bit with a little chuckle. “Pain in the arse he might be, but he is a lot of fun.”

“I have yet to see that,” Loki replied drily.

“He is just a little...wary… of you,” Sif said delicately. “He doesn’t know what to make of your magic.”

“Thor told you?” Loki started and stared at her. “He has broken one of our most sacred laws doing that!”

“...what?”

“The Statute of Secrecy. We are not allowed to let muggles know we exist or to see any magic since the witch burnings in the Middle Ages. We told Thor only because as he is to be part of our family he will come across it. You must tell no one. Please.” He asked of her. He did not want her to be taken away and obliviated.

“My lips are sealed.” Then she looked at him thoughtfully. “Then you can show me no spells?”

“Not legally. Now that you know, it would not be a problem but I have The Trace on me. We are not allowed to perform magic outside of school until our seventeenth birthday,” he explained. “My mother could if she chose to.”

“I think I’d like to see it someday,” she admitted. “Come, we should go to the train station. London Bridge will be best.”

Loki agreed and they made the short walk back to the station, exchanging small talk. They talked all the way back to the local station and then in the taxi to Gladsheim, where Sif let him out of the door and kissed his cheek.

“It was good to get to know you better, Loki,” she told him sincerely.

“You too, Sif. You can stay here if you think you might not get home safe.” He did not like the idea of a girl in a taxi by herself at night, even though Sif could take down even Thor in hand-to-hand.

“The taxi driver knows me, actually, I’ll be fine,” she assured him. “It is nice of you to worry though. If I don’t see you before you go to school, I wish you well.”

“Likewise,” she closed the door and Loki rapped on the roof before watching it pull away. Once out of sight, he headed in to the home with a little spring in his step.

_______

September first dawned and Frigga had helped him pack by shrinking his possessions in to his trunk and charmed it to be feather light. Odin was standing by the front door and looking strangely proud as he directed the servants to load everything. Loki did not know what to make of it.

“Loki, come here,” Thor poked his head out from his room and all but yanked Loki inside.

“Yes?” he asked, archly. 

“I wanted to do something.” Loki wondered why Thor looked so excited and just why there was a sharp silver knife on the side. “We got off to a bad start but I like you, Loki. I want you to be my brother.”

Loki looked at Thor incredulously even as his heart tightened in his chest at his words.

“We won’t be official brothers until Yule, but we can be blood brothers.”

“You want to exchange blood?”

“As long as I won’t suddenly do a magic spell, yes.” Loki laughed. 

“You won’t.”

They stayed silent after that as Thor lifted the knife reverently. Their index fingers were cut and they touched them together and then clasped their hands.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I got super wordy here. So much so that I have had to split this chapter in two and add another chapter in. The Sif & Loki segment got much wordier than planned but I'm pretty sure none of you will mind that one bit!
> 
> Sneaked in another little myth reference because makes my heart happy.
> 
> Gaucho (like all of the other places referenced in this fic) is a real place. It is amazingly stunning and I highly recommend eating there if you are ever in London. [Their website](http://www.gauchorestaurants.co.uk/restaurants/restaurant.php?id=towerbridge), with a gallery that shows the view.
> 
> When I have time, I'm planning on doing a little map of all the relevant places so you can have a visual of it all.


	14. The breaking of the ways

Convincing Thor to walk through the barrier to Platform 9 ¾ was rather difficult. As Loki and Frigga tried to show him how to do it, he looked somewhat afraid and sceptical. Walking headlong in to a barrier stopping people from falling on to live train lines did not seem like a good idea.

"Won't I just hurt myself?" He asked, looking a Loki askance.

"Do you trust me?" Loki asked him quietly. 

"I do."

"Then come with me," he held out the hand with a plaster on it and Thor lifted his own plastered hand.

"You promise that this isn't your revenge?"

"I promise." Thor clasped his hand tightly and Loki pulled him forward, a smirk spreading across his face. "You'll find out what _that_ is when you get home."

Before Thor could answer, Loki yanked hard on his hand and pulled him in to the magical passway and looked up as Thor took in the reality of the magical world. 

The big man gaped and looked around with wonder. Loki gently guided him away from entrance so that Frigga and Odin could also come through.

"This is..." Thor trailed off as people around them helped their kids and pets on to the train to the tune of a steam train rumbling and owls hooting to each other.

"More obviously magical than Ogden Manor?" Loki finished, a wry smile on his pale features.

"Yeah."

"The train is leaving soon," Frigga reminded and they busied themselves finding his friends and loading the trunk and owl cage.

Loki was leaning out of the window as the last boarding was called. 

"Be good. You will write to me?"

"Of course, Mother. I will send Hela soon."

"Enjoy your term, Loki." Odin added somberly.

"I will see you for the wedding, brother" Thor told him.

Frigga kissed his forehead and then Loki had to pull back in to the train as it pulled out of the station.

"What happened to your hand?" August asked as he closed the window to keep the wind out. 

"Oh nothing much. Just a small cut."

"Want me to heal it?" 

"No," Loki answered after a short pause. "I think I will let this one heal naturally."

______

Thor had been full of exuberance and questions on the way home. Enough that Odin insisted on being dropped directly to the office to escape the barrage.

Frigga answered all of his enquiries about magic, Hogwarts and the kind of classes Loki took that she could.

"I am certain we will hear from him soon," she told him as they exited the car. "He always lets me know that he arrived safely."

Thor's next question died on his lips as Hannah hurried to him.

"Begging your pardon, but did you know there was an angry badger in your bedroom?"

“LOKI!” Thor bellowed pointlessly in annoyance to the skies.

“I will get rid of it,” Frigga chuckled.

______

The next morning, a letter arrived for Frigga when Hela flew in to the breakfast room and landed on the table before helping herself to some bacon rinds (to Odin’s displeasure) but Thor did not get a chance to find out what was in it as Hannah hurried in once again.

“Excuse me, there is a man here from the military asking for you,” she told Thor. “He is in the summer parlour.”

Thor thanked her, grabbed another croissant that he ate quickly as he left the room and went in to the parlour.

“Sir,” he snapped to attention when he saw that it was one of his old instructors at Officer's school. The school often put their students under the command of real officers to expose them properly to what they were training for.

"Lieutenant Odinson,” Colonel Týr Hymirson greeted him and handed him a file. Thor ignored their personal connection as they were speaking in an official capacity. “You have been selected alongside Second Lieutenants Sif Týrdotter, Fandral Newley, Hogun Asano, Volstagg Frølich, and Lance Corporal Charles Leach with Privates Jamal Hill, David Byrd and Donald Adkins for a secret special strike unit to be known as the Vikings."

Thor knew the names of the others though they had not attended the same school as he and the four others who had all become commissioned officers upon their graduation. They had sometimes done drills with regular infantry and he recalled those men as being exceptional soldiers that he would be honoured to work with and command.

"The details will be revealed to you tomorrow. Be outside your old barracks tomorrow at 04:00 sharp." 

"Sir." He agreed in that simple word and saluted respectfully.

“On a personal note, Thor, as I cannot stay - please pass my regards to your father and to his bride-to-be on their engagement. My RSVP is in the post.”

“I will. Thank you.”

Týr nodded and walked out of the room, the crunch of his chauffeured car on the gravel announcing that he had left Gladsheim. With a spring in his step and excitement for the forthcoming mission, he went to deliver Týr’s message to his father and to Frigga.

Two o’clock in the morning dawned and Thor moaned with disappointment at his cut-short sleep. Even going to bed early had not helped much to alter his body clock from lazy civilian on holiday mode back to military time. As it was, he had packed the night before and he stumbled down to the car. His driver set off for the old officer’s school and picked up his friends on the way, of the three of them Sif alone seemed fully awake.

“Wake up, all of you,” she demanded as she handed them all cups of peppermint tea she must have had the driver stop off for while the boys snored. “We’ll be there in ten minutes and you have to look at least a little bit alert.”

Not for the first time, Thor wondered why she followed him and why she was not the leader. She was her father’s daughter through and through with even a pinch more determination than he. Thor was sure that she would make an excellent General some day, showing all that gender meant nothing when it came to the art of war. Still, it was flattering that she wanted to follow him and be with the others. They were a team. A unit.

As the tea helped lift him in to the land of the living, he smartened himself up a little and ensured his uniform was as pristine as it could be with him having dozed in it and they all got out of the car and entered the facility. A quick greeting was given to the non-officers and at 04:00 sharp, Týr walked in to the room, flanked by his secretary - a Warrant Officer named Jacqueline Izdaja. They all stood as one and saluted, with his salute back, they sat again, ready for their orders.

“You have all been selected to train as a special strike force. We are allying you with MI6, a small, elite unit that can take care of certain problems in secret and with no fuss. You do not exist. Are we clear?”

“Sir, yes Sir.” They all responded. Colonel Hymirson flicked his hand and Warrant Officer Izdaja handed out thin files.

“Memorise these. You have ten minutes.” They all bent low over their orders. They were being assigned to the region of Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park for training. This Viking Squad was to be trained like Black Ops, a secret dagger in the night. Thor felt joy at being selected for such a thing, even if out of all of them, only Sif and Hogun would have struck him as suitable for such a role. Thor liked to smash his way in to things, but if they pulled this off… his military career would be the stuff of legend. Within the ranks, at least. He could go in to civilian life when Odin bequeathed him the company with the knowledge of that and settle in to life as a businessman.

He greedily read and memorised the details and when Warrant Officer Izdaja took them back and shredded the files in a special hand-shredder and placed the pieces in the fireplace, he felt his heart beat a little faster. They signed a special confidentiality agreement, worded so that even the agreement did not show what they were really agreeing to even if it would be legally binding anyway and then they were told to get in their vehicles.

The trip up to Scotland was very boisterous as they all got to know each other again and theorised about what their training might involved and by the time they all exited the van at the Trossachs National Park, they were ready and raring to go.

“You have three days to cross this park without any signal of you. You will be being pursued.” They were told by the man that had driven them there. “See you on the other side.”

He got back in his van and drove off, leaving the squad to it. 

“You heard him,” he barked at them, going in to his officer mode although he referred to his troops by their first names. “Hogun, Charles, scan around for traps or tracking. Volstagg, Fandral, get the lay of the land. Privates, inventory. Sif, you’re with me.”

Their evasion plan worked out, they all shouldered their packs and took a careful, meandering course around the Loch. They reached the end of the first day, footsore and tired and they settled out their base camp. 

“I’ll take first watch,” Thor offered, even though he was exhausted from the very long day.

“Something bothers you,” Sif stated quietly as she sat beside him to eat.

“It is going to sound completely mad,” he replied, ripping in to his cold food. They could not risk a fire when they were being pursued but he was so hungry that it tasted like the ambrosia of the gods.

“Tell me anyway,” she urged him.

“I can feel Loki. Like he is nearby.” Thor admitted.

“You can feel him?”

“Like I said, it sounds mad.” He sighed “But it is like, if I walk to the left a bit more, I’d find him.”

“Maybe you just miss him. Which, considering how you felt when you met him says a lot.”

“Maybe. I’m probably over-thinking it. Get some sleep, Sif. I’ll wake you for second watch.”

“Sleep well, Thor.”


	15. These boots were made for walkin'

The next morning, Thor still felt that peculiar itch. Something tingled in his fingers and made his feet try to walk continually to the left. His body kept screaming at him to abandon his mission and go in search of that elusive thread. 

Tearing his focus away and listening to Sif's theory that he just missed his new brother, Thor did his best to stay on the course. This was both training and a test, he did not want to fail at his first real command because of some odd pull from Loki.

Guiding them all through the network of tracking devices, Hogun quietly notified them when they needed to change course and Thor took point to get them through the tricky bits. Marching for two hours and breaking for five minutes became their mantra as they wound their way closer and closer to the Loch.

Sif identified a likely looking secluded spot in a clump of trees by the lapping water's edge and they carefully bunkered down for the night in their camouflaged tents.

Now that he had set the Privates on watch, Thor allowed his mind to wander again. He wondered how Jane was. He had texted her from the van to tell her he was away for a few days so that she would not think that he was not speaking to her with this forced radio silence. 

"Still thinking about Loki?" Sif asked kindly as she settled herself down beside him with her rations. 

"Jane," Thor admitted without noting the twitch of annoyance in Sif's face.

"Thor," Hogun spoke and Thor felt like the silent man was cutting in - which meant that what he had to say was important. "The tracking devices are not functioning properly. It is as if something is interfering with them."

"We must triple our watchfulness then," he told the whole troupe. "They must have deliberately given us such equipment to make this harder on us. We will not let a setback defeat us."

They all grumbled their agreements, not wanting to be loud and give their position away that way. They refused to be caught out in such a stupid manner.

The next day was cold, wet and bitter. Their way was hard going and they had to try to cover their muddy tracks to stop pursuers being able to simply follow their foot impressions. 

They reached their goal triumphantly and as they were declared successful in their task, a howl cut through them all.

"There aren't wolves around here, right?" Asked Jamal as he looked around warily. 

"Just big dogs, some of the locals walk around here," Warrant Officer Izdaja waved off the nervousness irritably. "There are some local superstitions. Nothing more."

"We did it men - and lady!" Thor was scared of no superstitions or possible wolves. What mattered was that they were triumphant in their mission. Their first mission - his first command.

"You are being put up in town. We ship out at 05:00."

As they turned to pack themselves and their muddy packs in to the bare military vehicle, the not-wolf howled again. 

After a long soak in the shower and a quick phone call to Jane to let her know he was safe and well, Thor decided to head to the hotel bar. He spotted Sif and Hogun sitting together, talking and drinking. He was about to hail them when he heard Hogun mention his name.

"Thor and you liked each other at the wrong times," he was telling Sif and Thor's heart constricted. He hid in a booth nearby but out of sight of the conversing pair.

"I was stupid to ever like him in the first place." Thor heard a pause and then the clink of a glass against wood. "No more. I'm not going to pine over him while he falls in love with that girl. As of tonight, I'm moving on. I'm not a school girl with a crush any more."

"Here is to Sif," another clink but this time of glass on glass.

"To me." The woman agreed. Thor was about to slip away lest they caught him eavesdropping when he heard a name that caused him to stay.

"I think Loki is nearby," Hogun was speaking again, sounding thoughtful. How had Thor never noticed how relaxed these two were together? Sif and Hogun clearly knew each other better than Thor had guessed. The tactical part of his mind was already planning on utilising that fact for future Viking strikes. "Do you recall him telling Thor electricity does not work so well around magic when he asked about Loki's laptop?"

"You think magic is why the instruments malfunctioned?"

"Between that, the local superstitions W.O. Izdaja mentioned, that wolf howling and Thor's new obsession, I think their school is close. Where else would a big magical school be able to hide away from electricity so effectively?"

"Why can we not feel it but Thor can?"

"Perhaps it is in the blood?" Hogun theorised and Thor stared at his cut finger. _In the blood._ "Or maybe because they're basically family now?"

"Perhaps. We should go to bed, I don't want a hangover on the trip home," Sif decided and Thor hid himself better until they had gone.

Stumbling back to his room as if drunk, his friend's words echoing around his head, Thor fell on to the bed and stared out of the window in the direction he felt the pull until he fell asleep.

__________

Loki missed his mother intensely as he always did upon leaving King's Cross every September the first but this year came with an extra parting.

Though the ride up had been eventful with Antioch pointedly ignoring him in indignant silence that did not even vaguely bother Loki, he felt a persistent itch in his gut. Like he was close to something, a break through, perhaps. Whatever it was, it was proving elusive. He would have sat quietly and brooded over it but Sigyn had other ideas. 

Getting back to Hogwarts and watching the Sorting was always something he enjoyed. Watching the young ones faces as their houses - and friends to a certain degree - was decided by a tatty, ragged old hat. Loki had known he was for Slytherin the very first time Frigga had told him about the houses. She had thought perhaps he might be a Ravenclaw but his cunning seemed to speak to the hat even more than his intelligence. After all, did the two not go hand in hand? One could not be truly cunning without the intellect to underpin it.

Few Slytherin newcomers this year as the bulk of the children filled out Gryffindor and Hufflepuff. It had been that way most years since the end of the Second Wizarding War as parents more and more focused on teaching their offspring to emulate bravery and loyalty. 

That night, he retired early to pen a letter to his mother before going to bed. The morning brought with it new classes and homework. 

His Arithmancy teacher had been a little overzealous in greeting them for their O.W.L.s and given them a fifteen-inch essay to do by the week's end during their very first lesson back. Loki wondered what other horrors might be in store homework wise, ending up with a stack of books in the library that evening after dinner. 

Just when he wondered if he would have a chance to get any time to research his own, private project, a phrase in _'The numerical tenets of magic'_ caught his eye.

_Where the numbers seven and ten are the most magically powerful, the same is not true of alchemy._

_The true alchemist knows that the golden numbers are one, two and five._

_The one represents the perfect being, the two represents the body and the soul and the five represents completion._

_In order to go from one to perfect one, the body must accept two souls. The completion of which is known as Quintessence, that elusive and theoretical perfection._

Loki's heart pumped wildly and he snatched for more information but the book seemed to go on to elaborate on the numerical properties of magic and how it powered magical theory and potion making.

That itch got stronger and he could not shift it. Something told him to go right, to exit Hogwarts and let his feet guide him but he set it aside and headed down to the common room.

Two days of intensive reading followed as he did his homework, helped Sigyn with hers and then he revisited that book. He had read it cover to cover and managed to exceed his inch requirement on his paper by ten clear inches from the knowledge gleaned and he was close to giving up. He decided to ask for a permission slip to check in the restricted section for the bibliography when he found himself following his feet outside.

Realising that he had zoned out on his way to old Flitwick's office, Loki skirted in to the shadows. There was that enigmatic pull again and he checked that he was not being followed when he darted under the canopy of the Forbidden Forest.

The sound deadened around him and all was quiet. A mouse scurried past and Loki felt keenly aware of it. A second mouse ran up behind and the two squeaked irritably at each other before running off together. They reminded him in an oblique way of how he and Thor had begun.

_Thor._

With his brother in mind, Loki gave in to the itch in his gut, realising that it felt familiar. This was how he had felt before he had transformed in to the blue skinned humanoid version of himself. 

He dropped to his knees and placed his palms on the mossy, leaf-strewn ground and watched as his hands turned to paws. Somehow, he had done it. He had cracked the code. His triumphant yell changed in to a howl.

The world changed around him, less clear in his sight but so varied and intense by smell. He prowled the clearing and then took off for the deeper forest, howling once more as he went.


	16. Wedding Preparations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Loki and Sif fold napkins for the wedding feast and get to know one another a little better.

Loki spent many nights secretly prowling the Forbidden Forest and trying out his new form. The possibilities it opened up to him were intoxicating. 

One time he came across the herd of centaurs and they all stopped and stared at each other, sizing up the interloper. Loki bared his fangs but then turned his back on them in a calculated display. 'I will not fight you but if you try to attack or follow, I will defend myself'.

They let him be and wolf-Loki slinked away through the trees with relief flooding his senses. He encountered a few acromantula but they were far less aggressive than his Care of Magical Creatures books had suggested and he wondered if their losing so many of their number in the Battle of Hogwarts was the reason for their reticence. 

He could prowl, roam and mark out his territory as he wanted here, although not in the traditional manner as he felt something human needed to remain about his behaviour. The ease of transition now was electrifying to him. 

His classes were easing to in to a less frantic pattern as the year got used to the more involved and heavy work load. His grades were still at the top of the class and he took great pride in writing to his mother and Thor about them in gloating detail. 

As it was, time passed them by and he found himself on the train home for the holidays.

_____________

Thor had been delighted with the performance of all his subordinates and the rubber stamp of approval was given for his secret strike force. Their paperwork vanished in to MI6 and the Army and the Intelligence organisation locked it up tight.

Odin was proud and even said so, Frigga was proud and Jane had very much surprised him with her enthusiasm. 

As they lay in her room together the night before Loki got home, he smiled cheerfully at the ceiling as she slept contentedly beside him. Life seemed to all be falling in to place for him. Everything was perfect, except for one thing. He felt guilty for Sif even though she showed no outward signs at all of her feelings or her determination to get over him. He could only assume she was managing and he would still have been oblivious had he not over heard her speaking with Hogun that evening in the hotel. Even with Jane nestled at his side, he felt like a fool for not noticing the truth.

His father was marrying Frigga in two days, everything excepting the last minute preparations and details were taken care of and Loki was returning from school. He had missed the annoying little twerp more than he had thought he would. Things were definitely looking up. Funny to think that at the beginning of the summer he could envision nothing worse than Frigga and her then unknown son joining his family. Now he could not imagine it otherwise and he could not contain his excitement about their connection becoming formal in the eyes of the law.

_______

The train pulled in to King's Cross station on time and Loki pulled his trunk out on to the platform. As Sigyn bid him a brief farewell, she was invited to attend the wedding after all, he turned and found Thor was beset by teenage admirers. His eye twitched in annoyance and he walked over.

"BROTHER!" Thor boomed upon seeing him. 

"I see that you have made friends," Loki responded archly and the girls filtered away, one of them telling Thor to owl her in a seductive voice.

"Not with Antioch," Thor chuckled and Loki looked over to see Antioch glaring at Thor. If looks could kill, Thor would be an unidentifiable puddle of blood and guts on the floor.

"He is irritated that I neither apologised to him nor accepted _his_ apology." Loki was unconcerned by it all. "Where are Mother and Odin?"

"Caught up in a preparation hitch," they made their way out on to the muggle platform, Thor beaming that he could manage it all by himself now that he knew where to go and what to do to pass through the concealed entrance. "Something about the napkins not matching the design they wanted. Father was scolding the designer and Frigga was hidden from everyone, conjuring new ones."

"World-shattering issues I see," the boy was unimpressed at such a mundane hitch in the preparations preventing him from being picked up in style. 

"We're having a big dinner for the overseas guests tonight. The house is overrun," Loki's trunk got packed in the boot and they set off. He was pleased to note that Thor's driving was more careful and overall improved in his absence. 

"Are you allowed to bring Jane?" 

"Father finally said 'yes' but only after Frigga intervened," the elder sighed. "He doesn't approve of her not having a title or money. He promised to not make a fuss for her sake only."

"Well at least I will not have to play gooseberry with Sigyn coming along," he would have hated to deal with Thor and Jane without her.

The rest of the journey passed with Thor telling Loki all kinds of secrets that he was not supposed to and swearing him to secrecy and Loki telling Thor about his coursework. Before long, they were driving up the familiar driveway at Gladsheim.

There was a flurry of activity happening, people in heavy coats and wellies traipsing around with boxes, flower arrangements and garlands. Loki knew at once that the flowers were from Fensalir and had been organised by his mother herself. Their other home was being used to house their magical guests and to keep the wizards and muggles separate. The muggle guests were either at Gladsheim or filling up the local hotels.

After locating Odin, who waved an irritable hand in greeting before continuing to terrify the hired in help, the boys found Frigga surrounded by piles of cloth. 

She had almost suffocated Loki in an affectionate embrace and kissed his cheeks before turning to Thor.

"Thor, I need your help in moving some of those flower arrangements. It seems that the florist aiding me has disappeared. Loki, I need you to fold these napkins in to swans." Loki sighed with annoyance. 

"Can't you just charm them?" He moaned piteously.

"No. I do not have time if the dinner is to be ready on time," his mother frowned at his tone. "We have a lot of people to feed."

"Please excuse my interruption," Sif poked her head in to the room "the designer Odin was speaking with just fainted..."

Muttering to herself about silly, over zealous nitwits, Frigga glided out of the room. She paused at the door and looked at Sif appraisingly.

"Sif dear, could you aid my Loki? I have given him quite the task I fear."

"I will do my best, my lady." Frigga and Thor left the room together and Sif looked over at Loki. "So what did I just agree to?"

"Folding all of these in to swan shapes." He waved his hand dismissively at the piles of cut and edge embroidered linen.

"That... you'll have to show me how to do it. You can't do that spells thing, right?" The last part was said in a hopeful tone of voice. 

"Not until I turn seventeen, no," he reminded her.

"Well we'd better get started." She glared at the linen as if it had personally offended her.

Loki sat down on the floor, folding his robe beneath him to cushion his backside and he picked up the top piece of fabric. 

“Watch me and I’ll show you how to do it,” he told her and she knelt in front of him. A whiff of very subtle perfume drifted across his nose and he forced himself to look down at the napkin that he had placed on a diagonal and not at her face. She was even more breathtaking up close, how Thor had managed to pass by his opportunity with her, Loki would never know. The tantalising scent of tea tree and lavender continued to tickle at his nose and he tried his best to ignore it.

“You start by laying it on a diagonal, like this,” he showed her how he had laid it out flat. “Fold it along the diagonal quite hard and then unfold it again.”

She watched carefully as he showed her how the crinkle he had made held the shape he wanted it in. 

“Fold it up to the centre line, so it looks a bit like a wrap,” again he allowed her to watch his deft fingers as they folded. He had done this so many times before, when his mother held dinner parties she usually had him take care of the little things that he could manage without magic.

“Turn it over like this and double-fold, repeating on the other side so it becomes a much tighter wrap, like so,” Sif nodded as she took it all in.

“Fold the bottom tip up and over the top of the base, folding the tip down to make the head of the swan.”

“I see it now,” she exclaimed, working out what went where with regards to the shape of the elegant bird.

“Almost done. Now to just pull the neck out and the body easily unfolds. Voilà! A swan fit for a wedding feast. Now to do the other five hundred or so…”

“Okay, let me try one.” Sif said, picking up a square of linen. She noticed that the one that Loki had finished had an embroidered sigil on the side that was comprised of an O, an F, a T and an L. It was elegant and said so much to her when she realised it. She was determined to get this right. She laid the piece down in the same diagonal way as Loki had and she folded it over carefully. The next two steps were easy to follow but when she got to the steps where she had to fold it like a wrap, she found it hard to get right.

“Here,” Loki leaned up on to his knees and gently wrapped his own long, cool fingers around her shorter and warmer ones. “Like this.”

As he spread his fingers, cupping her hands with his own and showing her how to gently yet firmly shape and hold the napkin in the folds it needed to go in to to retain the shape of a swan, he felt tingles sweeping through him from the contact. He had touched Sif before, but only ever as a light brush as they handed something to one another or if their legs or elbows bumped in a restaurant and this was different, much more intimate and he did his best to control his breathing and keep any flush from his face.

Their fingers almost danced together and around each other as they folded and pressed the napkin in to shape. As Sif withdrew her hands to pull the neck and settle the body of the swan, she made a very happy, triumphant sound.

“It actually looks like a swan!” She proudly displayed it to Loki even though he had helped her. “I never thought I would do anything like this. I’m usually destroying things with my hands, not making them.”

“Such an achievement for the rude grunt,” Loki teased and Sif set the swan down carefully before displaying the two-fingered salute to him playfully. “As I said, rude. Uncouth, too.”

“I think I need help with one more, then I think I can manage one on my own. I just need to train my hands to it,” she decided as she picked up another embroidered square. Once again, he cupped her hands, gently sliding his fingers across her own and guiding her to where she needed to be.

“Just there,” he breathed as she slid her hands around to where they needed to be and pressed down.

They finished the movements together and she beamed, face flushed with success as she held the creation in her hands with Loki’s still wrapped around them.

“We did it! I think I can probably manage to help you properly now and not slow you down.” He let go of her hands and she set the swan down with the other two completed swans.

“I’ll watch you for one more,” he decided and watched as she laid out a third square of linen and folded it. Her hands moved with a little more surety although not as much as Loki’s experienced ones did and she produced an acceptable swan at the end.

“I think you’re ready,” he decided and they both pulled another square towards them and started making headway through their piles.

“So what have you been up to at school? I bet you learn all kinds of interesting things,” she asked him and Loki’s lips tipped upwards in a smirk.

“Are you sure you want to hear my stories? Thor seems to be of the opinion that I tend to brag a little about my marvellous achievements,” he asked with a note of mischief in his voice.

“I spend my time with Thor, Fandral and Volstagg. I’m starting to believe Hogun only does not speak because he cannot get a word in edgeways,” she reminded him with a chuckle.

“True. Well, I suppose I can start with a story of my second day back. We were in potions class and we were learning about making a potion that creates false feelings of emotion that is confused with love. It is very dangerous and poisonous if not created right and there is even talk of making it illegal - but to show us the dangers and I think to put us off trying it for ourselves, Professor Slughorn allowed us to smell it. It smells different to each person depending on what attracts them.”

“Sounds both like a funny lesson and a potion that needs to be banned immediately,” Sif said.

“It is both,” he admitted. He knew that Hermione Weasley was campaigning for it to be banned and that she had the support of her husband and of Harry and Ginny Potter lending weight to her arguments. The Daily Prophet ran articles on it every few weeks as the campaign gained momentum. 

“He asked us all to describe what we smelled. One girl, Olive, pretty much described everything about Thor. She _was_ pretty taken with him at Pomona’s party.”

“What did you smell?” Sif asked and Loki blushed a little. “Did it describe your girlfriend?”

“A little, yes. I smelled lavender and pine and some sort of sharp, polish smell that I didn’t know,” he admitted, clearly embarrassed. “Sigyn wears a foresty perfume.”

“And what did she smell?” More swans joined the pile.

“She smelled sand, the ocean and hearthfire,” he admitted, wondering at it. Other than hearthfire - which could be anyone - the other two things she smelled did not really describe him.

“I think you guys make some really weird things, you know, wizards,” Sif replied. “With me, I identify what to aim at, aim at it and then attack.”

“The world would be a very boring place if we were all alike,” Loki reminded her.

As she smiled back at him and set another swan down, Loki suddenly found that he was actually more than okay with the foul-up with the napkins. It meant that he and Sif could get to know one another a little better and something tingled in his gut at the notion.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The two-fingered salute in the U.K. is the same as giving the middle finger in the U.S. It is not to be confused with the victory sign, which is palm-out as the salute is palm-in. It originated from the long-bow battle era as the French if they captured an Englishman would cut off those fingers to stop them drawing a bow. The English troops used to gesture it to the French mockingly before going in to battle as if to say “we have our fingers, you’re going to die”.
> 
> It is also why a lot of English people get very offended when Americans come over and ask for two of anything as it tends to be a U.S. habit to gesture it and we see it as being flipped off, not as a request for two of something. Little travel tip for you there!
> 
> Also this chapter can be known as when I managed to make napkin folding sound vaguely sexual.
> 
> Obviously I was discussing Amortentia for the potion. As Harry knew that Merope Gaunt had used it on the muggle Tom Riddle from the revelations about Voldemort’s past, I figure he would have told the whole story to Ron, Hermione and Ginny and that Hermione as a member of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement would be determined to get it banned. Between the rather horrifying implications of Voldemort’s conception and Ron being poisoned by Romilda Vane; it really should be.


	17. The Wedding

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Odin and Frigga finally tie the knot.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Warning** : alluded-to sexual content ("off-screen") _not_ with Loki as he is under-age.  
>  (The Age of Consent in England is 16 and is what will be referred to in this story)

The night had been nigh on perfect. Loki and Sif had whiled away the hours folding umpteen napkins and speaking of all kinds of topics. They had started with tales of Hogwarts that had enthralled Sif and veered through military tactics, art and favorite flowers. He had been surprised that she knew so much about flowers until she had grinned and said that roses had thorns and that she probably knew more poisons than he did even with his potions classes.

He had then invited her to Fensalir some time to see his mother's famed gardens. He also filed away carefully a few embarrassing and bawdy tales from her of Thor's pre-Jane antics that he fully planned to use for his own benefit at every opportunity. 

When they had been found by Frigga to come to dinner it was an unpleasant interruption until Sif promptly sat herself next to him at the table so that they could continue talking. Sif had kicked Fandral viciously under the table when he had reappeared at the same time as the missing florist and she had hissed at him to be more discreet if he was going to work through the hired staff. 

"As long as he leaves Hannah alone, my mother will allow him to keep his head, she adores that girl" Loki had teased and toasted the blond with his orange juice. He was grudgingly fond of Fandral even if the small fondness did not seem to be returned. He was likeable despite being irritating to the younger teen. Loki also noticed a few dark glances from Odin towards Jane and he felt somewhat protective of the woman. He might have tried to warn Darcy to keep them apart but it was clear now that Jane made Thor happy and Loki wanted Thor to be happy. Sadness just did not suit the big man. He promised himself that he would discreetly look out for the diminutive scientist.

He and Sif had then gone back in to the room to finish the last fifty cloth birds and retired to their own rooms. Sif was in the guest quarter as usual when she stayed here and Loki watched her move off down the hall. Upon opening the door to his room, he spied Thor sneaking Jane in to his quarters.

"If Father catches you, I'm not covering," Loki had warned, only to be beamed at and gathered in to a bear hug.

"Yes, brother! He is your father as well as mine! It gladdens me to hear you call him so."

"He will be tomorrow so I might as well get used to it," Loki's words were muffled by Thor's chest. "Put me down you oaf and go tend to your lady."

"I shall see you tomorrow blood brother - and brother tomorrow in truth."

"Yes, yes. Go." Despite his derisive and dismissive tone, he could not help the smile spreading across his face as Thor set him down and they moved in to their own rooms. 

As he undressed and overheard the sounds from Thor's room (promising himself to cut off Thor's balls in the morning for the disturbance and almost giving up on his promise to look out for Jane) he frowned. How would he manage to sleep with all that going on?

He could not block the disturbance with magic so he burrowed under the covers and tried to concentrate on finding slumber. When he finally found the elusive state, it was with Sif on his mind.

"Morning sleepy head!" Something - well, some _one_ landed on his bed and had a familiar and far too chirpy tone.

"Mmmph. Go away, Sigyn."

"Nope. I'm here at your Mum's request. 'Go wake up my slug of a son so he isn't late to breakfast'." Sigyn replied as she peeled the duvet back off of Loki. "She miiiight have intimated that she would literally turn you in to a slug if you were late. Maybe."

"Now that is silly. I wouldn't match the colour scheme." The effect of his comment was somewhat lost through the covers and a yawn as she uncovered his face.

"Get up, lazy." He felt her kiss the tip of his nose and he opened his eyes. 

"Fine. I'll go and get in the shower."

"I'll get your things ready."

With only a little bit more petulant fuss, Loki was dragged from bed, showered and presentable. He allowed Sigyn to help him with the boutonnière she had brought from Frigga and she wrapped his cummerbund around him properly. 

"You look ready to give her away," Sigyn looked proud of him and he fidgeted a little uncomfortably. 

"It feels weird to be giving her away when I'm not giving her up or going anywhere," he confessed. 

"Ignore what it is called. You're not giving her away, you are gaining a father figure and a brother. You are representing your mother, yourself - and you are representing the brothers who are watching over you. They and your Dad would be so proud of you being the one to represent them. There is no one else in all of the whole world that your Mum would want by her side today. Okay, you dimwit?”

“Okay.”

“Right, I’m supposed to take you in to her so that you can enter for breakfast together,” she told him simply and offered him her arm.

As they nodded politely to people as they passed on their way to Frigga's favourite parlour, Loki felt himself relaxing a little. 

"Loki!" Frigga wrapped her arms around him and Sigyn. "Oh you look so very handsome."

"You look beautiful, Mother," he complimented as he pulled away. She was wearing a very simple, flowing golden gown. She had said a mother of three would look daft in a proper wedding dress but she looked _regal_ in this. He noticed that Hlín, Gná, and Fulla were all wearing rose blush versions of the same draped gown. He smiled as that was very typical of his mother to tie them all in like that. 

"Come, let us away to the breakfast," she told the room and they all moved out. The breakfasting had been split in to two. Those with the bride dined separately from those with the groom, which meant all of the wizards were in here.

It was a classy yet enjoyable affair as the food was served. The general chatter was simple and excited. Yule was coming and they had a wedding to celebrate. A quick reminder that there was to be no overt magic due to the muggles present and they all rose for the main event, concealing their wands. Loki had left his own wand in his school trunk as he could not use it anyway outside of Hogwarts.

Sigyn squeezed his hand reassuringly and let go as he moved up to the rear of the column with his mother. The guests began filing in to the ballroom (magically enlarged for the day) and Loki allowed Fulla to fuss over his hair. He knew better than to argue with his mother's best friends after all.

Finally it was just them and the string quartet began a wedding march that Frigga had commissioned. He kissed her hand and the doors opened.

Hlín, Gná, and Fulla followed dutifully as Frigga and Loki walked up the aisle. Each step felt curiously both like walking knowingly in to a lion's den and freeing at the same time. He squeezed her hand even as he caught Thor's eye. This was a good thing. Thor was waiting for him just as Odin was for Frigga and their family would be more complete than it had been in years. As Thor smiled at him, the scary lion became a playful kitten and Loki's steps became more sure and placed.

The whole room smelled sweet and fresh, the sweetened rushes lining the walls added to the ambience and Frigga’s fabled flowers were everywhere and yet were still elegant and not overpowering, honeysuckles denoted all of those in the wedding party and as Loki got to the front, he allowed Odin to take his mother’s hand from him and he stepped back, Gná taking her bouquet.

The former Minister of Magic stepped up and began to speak, a hush falling over those present. Even more so for the magical folk as Kingsley Shacklebolt’s deep, rich voice rolled over them all.

“Chains do not hold a marriage together. It is threads, hundreds of tiny threads, which sew people together through the years.” he began and instead of weaving themselves magically around the couple’s hands, Hlín bound the hands so that the muggles would not see any overt magic.

"This cord ribbons symbolizes so much. It is your life, your love and the eternal connection that the two of you have found with one another. The ties of this handfasting are not formed by these ribbons or even by the knots connecting them. They are formed instead by your vows, by your pledge, your souls and your two hearts, now bound together as one." Hlín finished the binding and gestured for Thor and Loki to step in as well and she began twining their own honeysuckle bindings together.

“Your family is entwined by your love, bringing you all together by heart and symbolised by the ribbons we place upon you.” Kingsley allowed the brothers, once bound together to stand beside their parents.

“These are the hands of your best friend, strong and full of love for you, that are holding yours on your wedding day, as you promise to love each other today, tomorrow and forever.

These are the hands that will work alongside yours, as together you build your future.

These are the hands that will passionately love you and cherish you through the years, and with the slightest touch, will comfort you like no other.

These are the hands that will hold you when fear or grief fills your mind.

These are the hands that will countless times wipe the tears from your eyes; tears of sorrow and tears of joy.

These are the hands that will help you to hold your family as one.

These are the hands that will give you strength when you need it.

And lastly, these are the hands that, even when wrinkled and aged, will still be reaching for yours, still giving the you same unspoken tenderness with just a touch.”

Kingsley placed his hands on the couple’s joined ones.

“Now, look in to one another’s eyes and say the words.”

"Upon this day, our hands we bind, a symbol of our hearts entwined. To witness this, we ask of thee, our union forever blessed be." They intoned together and as Kingsley smiled it seemed as though miniature fireworks went off, but of course the magical attendees and muggles who knew of magic knew what they really were - wand sparks.

“In the sight of the Ministry I represent and the laws of both our realms, I pronounce you Man and Wife. You may kiss your bride.” Odin leaned in and gently placed a loving kiss on Frigga and Loki found that he did not hate the sight.

“We’re really brothers now Loki, always and forever” Thor whispered to him and as he was not very quiet, he saw Sif smiled at the two of them out of the corner of his eye.

“We are, brother.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay for this chapter, in a nutshell I had to go on a business trip again and worked stupid amounts of hours. No time for writing until I got back. So here it is! I hope you enjoyed it.
> 
>  
> 
> “Chains do not hold a marriage together. It is threads, hundreds of tiny threads, which sew people together through the years.” - Simone Signoret
> 
> These are the hands of your best friend, young and strong and full of love for you, that are holding yours on your wedding day, as you promise to love each other today, tomorrow and forever.  
> These are the hands that will work alongside yours, as together you build your future.  
> These are the hands that will passionately love you and cherish you through the years, and with the slightest touch, will comfort you like no other.  
> These are the hands that will hold you when fear or grief fills your mind.  
> These are the hands that will countless times wipe the tears from your eyes; tears of sorrow and tears of joy.  
> These are the hands that will tenderly hold your children.  
> These are the hands that will help you to hold your family as one.  
> These are the hands that will give you strength when you need it.  
> And lastly, these are the hands that, even when wrinkled and aged, will still be reaching for yours, still giving the you same unspoken tenderness with just a touch. - Author unknown, tweaked to fit the setting. Un-tweaked version shown here.
> 
> "Upon this day, our hands we bind,  
> A symbol of our hearts entwined.  
> To witness this, we ask of thee,  
> Our union forever blessed be."  
> \- Author Unknown


	18. Beware the girly bonding

As the newlyweds walked back down the aisle, their sons following them and they in turn were followed by the wedding party, butterflies were released in to the air and they settled on the flowers and the whole room was filled with excited cooing over the beautiful display.

At the end of the aisle, the handfasting was removed so that they could enter the huge dining hall (magically expanded for the day) while the hired staff quickly dismantled the display in the ballroom to open it up for the dancing and reception later on. Loki found himself sitting beside his mother at the top table and he quickly sought out the seating plans for those he knew. A flicker of unease shot through him when he saw the Warriors Three, Sif and Sigyn all taking their places at Table Three. Goodness knew what they would be telling his girlfriend - or what she might tell them in return. Jane was seated there as well and they were all exchanging pleasantries as they sat down.

Hœnir stood and made his best man’s speech, Loki not being anywhere near as surprised as Thor when he mentioned that he had been waiting for this day for years and he guessed that Odin had not been so open with him as Frigga had for himself. He had known quite early on in their relationship that she had a beau as she had not wanted to hide anything from him, especially after the way in which he had lost his father in that accident. 

The food came out to exclamations of delight as the cooks had outdone themselves for the wedding feast. Each person present had been able to choose between an array of birds including swan and goose after the correct permits had been acquired as well as vegetarian and vegan options. Many of the muggles were seemingly curious about the array of drinks available and Loki noticed Sigyn guiding Jane's hand gently away from the firewhiskey offered to her.

When Loki had finished his delicious meal, he made his excuses and hurried with Thor over to Table Three before the dessert arrived to find out what was happening over there. 

What he found was not what he expected. Sif snorted with laughter as he approached and Jane covered her mouth but clearly was about to collapse from giggles at something Sigyn had said. The girlfriends allowed the newcomers to sit with them. 

"What were you all laughing at?" Thor asked.

"I was just telling Jane and Sif about the time Loki got chased around the school grounds by our massive game keeper for switching all of the food for the two kinds of animals in class and causing a stampede as they tried to get to their real food. I've never seen him run so fast!" Sigyn looked like she might actually die from laughing at the memory and she dabbed her watering eyes. "Hagrid is twice his height, too!"

Sif howled with laughter as Loki went beet red with acute embarrassment. 

"I would prefer it if you did not regail Thor's friends with my school tales" he admonished. 

"Hey. You are our friend as well as Thor," Sif cut in and Loki flushed white in surprise. "It is nice to know you have a lighter side as well. Of course it means we get to tease you back." Then he went right back to resembling a beetroot again. He completely missed the look of surprise that crossed Sigyn's face behind him as she took in the way he reacted to Sif's words for it was gone when he turned back to her.

"Here she comes," Volstagg cut in and they all looked over at him.

"Who comes, my fri-" Thor began to ask.

"No don't!" Fandral protested but Volstagg had seized upon the question posed to him.

"The most wondrous woman I have ever seen."

A fairly pretty girl came over with the trays of dessert and began to pass out confections that seemed more artwork than food.

"My compliments to the chef for such delights!" Volstagg boomed in delight, attracting her attention. 

"Thank you, Sir."

"Volstagg. Call me Volstagg, my dear. Will you pass the message on?"

"I do not need to, one of the waitresses called in sick so I'm helping out."

"You mean to say that you are the genius behind all of this?" Loki looked at Thor as Thor looked back at him, both pinpointing the exact moment Volstagg fell in love.

"I am. Please enjoy."

"What is your name? I cannot simply call you 'chef'."

"I am Gunnhilde."

The brothers headed back to the top table for their own desserts. The food was amazing, somehow even topping the main course with ease. Gunnhilde was quite the kitchen prodigy it seemed.

As they all swept in to the ballroom again, now magically transformed in to an oasis of beauty by the magical decorators, Loki found Sigyn's hand.

"I like your friends," she told him. "Sif especially."

"I like them, too." Fandral pushed past, a lady at each arm "Most of them."

"He asked me for a dance later," she sounded thoughtful but when Loki looked at her, aghast, she giggled again. "I'm only joking! Your expression is priceless though."

"You remember when I promised to never tell you what to do?"

"Yes?" The question somehow sounded dangerous. 

"I'm heavily suggesting that you don't dance with him. I don't trust him around someone special to me."

"What about me?"

"I trust you, I always have - but look."

"I suppose you have a point." Fandral was making an exit from the room with both ladies. 

"That isn't the first time this weekend either," Loki felt the need to point out. 

"What about Sif? She seems perfectly safe around him."

"She'd break every bone in his body and she doesn't need a wand to do it. She can even take down my brother in a fight."

"Maybe I'll ask her to teach me some self defence. In case I'm ever in a situation where I can't use my wand."

"When would that be?" Loki asked in surprise as his parents took to the floor for their first dance. 

"I've been having this feeling lately and did not know quite what. Talking to Jane just now cemented it. I want to take one of those muggle Gap Year things." The two of them watched Frigga and Odin turning slowly on the dance floor as Thor and Jane joined them. At a gesture from his mother, Loki pulled Sigyn on to the floor as well and they danced slowly in the spotlight, their conversation continuing in whispers.

"Your father would never allow that," he reminded her, feeling the world spin fast as he rotated with her slowly. Frigga and Sigyn were his rocks, his bearings and they were shifting.

"Forget him and his stupid plans. I can't just settle and marry and have kids without knowing exactly who I am and my place in the world."

"I understand." He was lying. He did not understand. Somewhere in his mind was the knowledge of the inevitability of his marrying Sigyn and having many fat grandchildren some day when they were old. It made life seem easy, neat and content. Did she need more than simple contentment and love? Was he not the one to give it to her? Yet he could not deny that when he caught sight of Sif and Hogun joining the rest of the assembly joining the dance, he was unsure.

"I have no idea what I'll do or where I will go yet, but I want to do _something_."

"We have time before that."

"Plenty. Who knows, the idea might have completely left my head by the time we leave Hogwarts."

The song ended and Odin stumped off of the floor to his seat by Hœnir. His mother came close, squeezed his shoulder and asked if he was having fun before she went with her husband as many of the older guests followed suit.

"May we cut in?" Sif and Hogun danced up to them and Sigyn beamed. 

"Of course. Return him in only slightly scuffed condition?"

"No promises," Sif laughed as Hogun took Sigyn's hand and Loki took the warrior woman's strong one. He wondered if introducing the two was a good idea. They seemed to be getting on far too well.

"This is a beautiful wedding," Sif complimented and Loki only just about registered her words as his blood thundered in his veins as he put one arm around Sif and held her hand in his. She smelled amazing, a light crisp scent he seemed to know from somewhere and as his thumb brushed a little bit of skin on her back, his whole body thrummed with pleasure.

"It is."

"Are all" she looked around and then dipped her head in close proximity to whisper to him "magical weddings like this?"

"More obviously magical but yes," he whispered back. 

"I'd love to see one some day," she looked up at the ceiling to the faerie lights. "Wait. Are those _real_ faeries?"

"They are. The muggles see what they want to see. You know there is magic here so you can see past the veil."

"I want to learn more about your world, Loki. Even the stuff about you being chased by giants."

"Half-giant. Hagrid is only half-giant."

"Seriously? That is so..." she paused and looked very grossed out "Which half?"

"Oh ew. Not something I ever wanted to picture. His mother was a giantess."

"How did they even conceive him?"

"I don't know, nor do I want to." As they twirled together, whispering and giggling, they had no idea just how easily they fit and looked as a pair. No idea that they looked as though they had been dancing together for years and no idea that Fandral was back from his tryst and watching. No idea that Hogun, Sigyn and Frigga all saw. 

No idea that Odin was glaring between them and the coupling of Thor and Jane just off to their side.

They were in a happy little bubble and protected from it all in that one, perfect moment.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fandral is a lovable nitwit but don't worry, he and Loki won't always be like this, I have my reasons for the mistrust on both sides.
> 
> Hogun/Sigyn will not happen. I just wanted them to dance together because Hogun needs more love/spotlight always.


	19. A near-perfect holiday

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Christmas tradition.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was originally supposed to be a New Year's Eve party chapter but no one would co-operate so I scrapped it. I hope you like this and I apologise for the delay.

When the night ended and the guests all shepherded home, magically or not as the case required, Frigga kissed her sons and Odin nodded at them before she disapparated them away to their hotel for the night.

Thor turned to his friends, to Jane, to Loki and to Sigyn and beamed.

“Now the party can really begin!” he boomed and lead them all to his quarters where he had set up a little after-party for them.

“Thor, I have to go back to Erik’s for Christmas dinner,” Jane reminded him. "He is really excited about having us there."

“Frigga already told me she had organised you a car for tomorrow morning. We’re all having Christmas dinner together before they go for their honeymoon,” he replied with only a little slurring.

Loki turned down the drink as did Sigyn as they were underage and not really wishing to feel the wrath of Frigga the next morning and while it was fun, they soon excused themselves and Sif followed.

“Goodnight you two,” she told them as she left them by Loki’s door. “If she goes in there, I won’t tell. I saw nothing,” she winked at them and let them slide in to his bedroom, Loki going a deep shade of red once again.

“We do this all the time, it doesn’t mean…” he began but Sigyn shoved him through the door with a chuckle.

“See you in the morning, Sif.” She shut the door behind them. “I like her. I approve.”

“Approve?” Loki asked, confused.

“Of the two of you being friends.”

“I’m glad you like her - all of them. I think they’ll be part of the furniture around here even more than usual. Although I guess that depends on how often Thor wants to bring Jane here.”

“I noticed Odin was a little cold to her.” Sigyn noted as she pulled her night dress out of her bag.

“He doesn’t think she is high-born enough for Thor.” Loki yawned as he pulled his formal clothing off and changed in to his pajamas. “Maybe I should lend him my copy of the history of the Second Wizarding War and drop heavy hints.”

“He might never change his mind,” Sigyn reminded him gently “He is a bit set in his ways.”

They both stopped to clean their teeth and wash their faces before they slipped in to bed and cuddled around each other for warmth and for comfort. Loki found himself drifting easily with her there.

Woken the next morning by Frigga, Sigyn went home first before the woman took everyone home in turn except Sif. Instead, she returned with her father for their traditional combined ceremonies. 

"Thank you for this," Loki overheard Odin tell Frigga. "I thought you might have wanted to spend our first married Christmas just us."

"Your traditions are now my traditions as well. I would not be content if we excluded them," she assured him.

"Who wants breakfast?" Sif called from the breakfast room. 

"I'm starved," Thor proclaimed and his brother was impressed at his bouncy attitude considering how drunk the elder had been only a few hours previously. 

"Sif always makes Christmas breakfast. It is surprisingly delicious considering how bad her broth is when we are on duty." Loki winced as Thor still seemed to not have an 'indoor voice'.

"I heard that!" 

"Oops?" Thor looked guilty. "Your broth really is terrible though, Sif."

"Is it? What a good job we have someone like Volstagg to make a better broth..." she came into the breakfast room bearing a large tray and winked at Loki. He smirked as he looked to Thor all of them ignoring their parents watching on with mirth. The cogs of the big man's mind whirred and clicked. 

"You fed us that stuff on purpose?!" 

"Would I do such a thing?" She asked in a falsely innocent voice as she set down the platters of Full English. 

"I will never trust you again." The table roared with laughter.

"This, son, is exactly why you and the Lady Sif are such a good team." Odin toasted her with his breakfast tea.

"I would never have them any other way," Týr agreed and then seeing Frigga's glower of disapproval at the two elder men, added "in the field."

The rest of the breakfast passed in better harmony and the food really was delicious. Loki was just getting used to the merging of their traditions, unable to do anything overtly magical because of it. He very much enjoyed beating them all at a game of Monopoly soundly, rubbing it in with Thor when Loki bankrupted him.

Thor got a bit of revenge at Trivial Pursuit, beating Loki just through being a muggle and being exposed to the culture more and having a very strange affinity for 90s trivia. Frigga beat them all hands down though.

Lunch was an enjoyable and noisy affair before they retreated to the parlour for the present giving. Loki got a little inwardly annoyed at Thor getting Sif a beautiful set of engraved daggers, berating himself for not thinking of it. He gave her a book on military history with a slip of paper inside telling her to come to his room later for her real gift.

That evening, after they had gorged themselves on some excellent desserts, Loki retreated to his room and waited. The knock on his door came shortly and he let her in.

"What could you not give to me in the parlour?" She asked, looking up as some hanging crystals caught her eye. 

"Mother gave me those when I started school," he told her as he drew her attention to the wrapped parcel in his hands. 

"I only got you one gift, I'm sorry," the apology given as she took the package. 

"Don't think of it as a gift, then. Think of it as a curio." Her gift to him, a framed set of pictures of his new family, was already on the dresser. Opening the item, she found a copy of 'Fantastic beasts and where to find them'.

"I'm not allowed to show you magic until I'm seventeen, but I thought you might like this."

"Loki... this is really thoughtful. Thank you."

"Your father could not see me giving it to you as he doesn't know of magic."

"I love it. Thank you." She leaned in and kissed him on the cheek, it felt like a burning brand on his cheek.

Sif and Týr left and then Frigga and Odin to start their honeymoon in truth. 

"So, brother, we have a whole week to ourselves. What do you want to do?" Thor asked as a smirk spread across Loki's face. What, indeed.


	20. Back to work

Thor had loved pretty much every single moment of this holiday break, but as he set Loki back on the Hogwarts Express and headed back to the empty Gladsheim, he felt very alone. Jane was busy at work and he missed his little brother already.

Sif and the Three came around, Volstagg bringing his new girlfriend Gunnhilde along. The two had been totally inseparable since the wedding and at New Year's Eve, they had all extended the invitation to her as well. Sif had been very pleased to have another girl around as well. 

Two days after Odin and Frigga returned from their honeymoon, they got the word that the strike unit was wanted for a covert mission. Even during the partying, the group had kept their fitness up and felt ready to take on the assignment; whatever it may be. Thor felt his blood near thrumming under his skin with excitement and anticipation of being able to really prove himself. That excitement died a sudden death at the briefing, however, despite their friends from the training by Loch Lomond joining them. 

"Recon, Sir?" He asked, dismayed.

"Recon. The sort that should not require any muscle but we want it there just in case. This group that call themselves 'Hydra' are well equipped, secretive and vicious. This insidious group are a leftover from the days of Nazi Germany that believed in magical powers. A load of nonsense, but their infernal motto 'cut off the head, two more will rise in it's place' is pretty accurate." Tyr told him as Sif and Fandral shifted uncomfortably at his casual mention and dismissal of magic. They really needed Loki for this... or would, if he was of age, anyway. 

"Magic might be a load of hokum, but we cannot deny that there is something more than just fanaticism with these people. MI6 want intel but won't use any of their people as there is always the possibility of a mole. You are our secret weapon, Viking Squad." Thor sat up a little straighter. Going up against Hydra was more than just a simple recon mission, no matter what it was called.

"No one knows that you exist as a group. You all have official, watertight back stories. Go, find out what you can of their plans so we don't just cut their head off, we burn the whole cult to the ground. Your car awaits outside, don't fail me. Dismissed." Týr and his assistant, Izdaja, left the room and the group looked at each other in surprise. 

"Well, wasn't expecting that for our first real mission," Fandral chuckled.

"They must have real faith in us." Volstagg agreed. 

"We'd better get in the car," Sif reminded them all pointedly. 

In the car, they exchanged happy holiday season tales since the group had last seen one another, careful to not let a single syllable drop of their mission in case of bugging.

"So then, Sif ends up dancing with Thor's new baby brother. I swear they looked ridiculous together," Fandral told Jamal through his laughing. "She is taller than he is for a start...ow!"

"At least Loki can still grow, whereas you? Not so much. Anyway, you can't have lasted too long with those ladies you were bragging of, if you were back in time to see me dancing with him." Sif shot back, making Jamal smile at her as he cracked up.

"It is a good job she likes you, my friend," Thor chimed in "or you would be in far more pain than that!"

"Yes, yes. Laugh at Fandral time."

"Only because you make it so easy." Fandral gave a little amused smirk and waved to concede the point.

It felt good to be joking around with his friends, they could not discuss the mission right now anyway and it put him at ease to know his beloved group of friends were with him in this.

When they were dropped off at mission point, they collected their "belongings" and dressed as civilians. Boarding the train was fun and they found themselves on the Euro tunnel and being whisked away to France.

By the time they arrived at their destination, they were all exhausted. They were playing the part of backpackers across Europe that had stopped en route to make some coin. Sif did most of the speaking as she was fluent in French after her year away and between Volstagg and Charles, they could manage little more than 'voulez-vous couchez avec moi' and a roguish wink. Thor's accent was atrocious but he could at least string a sentence together. 

They settled in to the hostel and got to the jobs MI6 and the military had organised. Feelers were put out gently for the first week and on day ten of their mission, Sif overheard a customer in the patisserie she was working in say something about a snake. Carefully lurking closer but looking busy if they deigned to look her way, she heard one whisper "Hail Hydra" as they kissed goodbye on the cheeks.

They had their first lead - and the day capped off with Hela bringing a letter. 

_Thor,_

_I hope that this finds you well. Mother says that you are busy travelling. I hope Hela does not have to go too far or be away too long._

_I have been busy at school, both with school work and a project of my own. There was quite a funny incident on the third day back when Antioch tried to curse me with jelly legs after an argument over your father marrying my mother, but Sigyn slapped him with the bat bogey hex. It is just as disgusting as you might expect it to be. She said she learned it from an interview with her favourite Quidditch player._

_Anyway, other than that, not much has been happening of interest to anyone not here._

_Sigyn says hello, as do the rest of the girls. Olive said something so rude I will not put it to parchment._

_Loki._

There was a scribble on the bottom in a different script.

_Hi!_

_We're having a lot of fun here and don't worry, I'm helping him keep out of trouble._

_Say hello to everyone for me!_

_See you soon,_

_Sigyn._


	21. Turns

The lead they had was proving to be difficult to follow up on as the men seemed to have vanished and they neither heard nor saw any other indication towards Hydra or the minions of for nearly four weeks. 

Thor was missing his family and Jane so much that Sif and Fandral had almost given him an intervention over his mood affecting the mission. He had snapped mostly out of it in time though. Two days after that, a drunken fool tried to pinch Sif's bottom as she left work and she flipped him over her shoulder on to the floor, hard. Thor had no idea what she had hissed at the man in French, but he got the idea anyway judging by the man’s instantly blanching face and hurried drunken wobble away from her.

Another man approached her then, hands up to show that he was not as foolhardy as the previous and Thor looked at Hogun and hung back to observe. 

"Mademoiselle, you have a true mastery of that move. Might I enquire where you learned such a skill?" He asked and Sif sized him up before replying. 

"My father taught me self defence," she told him, which was both the truth and part of her cover story.

"My supervisor is looking for one such as yourself, should you be interested. He only wants to see the best. I could recommend you, the pay is more than this patisserie, I promise you that." His voice had a sibilant quality to it and Sif gave him an interested look.

“I’ll be here tomorrow at the same time. Give me your answer then, no?” He tipped his hat and walked away, Sif heading over to where Thor and Hogun sat and made herself comfortable. 

“You think that guy might be…” Thor asked, leaving off the key word as they all knew it and there was no point drawing attention or blowing their cover now.

“I think I’ll take him up on the offer,” Sif agreed. “Let’s go.”

Getting back to the rooms they were staying in, they waved at Volstagg who was on the phone to Gunnhilde again and to Fandral until they realised he had fallen asleep on the sofa.

Hogun pulled out some cups while Sif got the juice and they all settled around the table. 

“If that guy is Hydra, then once I’m in, I can get you in as well. Officially or unofficially.” Sif mused aloud as she sipped her drink.

“Officially will be better considering we’re on recon,” Thor added as Hogun nodded his approval of this insight.

“Unofficially will be a last resort,” she promised. “Then tomorrow I tell him I accept the offer.”

A bird tapped their beak on the window and Thor brightened up again when he saw it was Hela. 

“News from Loki!” he exclaimed happily and stood up to retrieve the bird and feed her some nibbles.

__________________

“Loki Friggajarson, pay attention!” a shrill voice and a tiny, localised explosion by his desk drew his attention back to the board. He was so tired that he had not even realised that he had nearly fallen asleep at his desk. Professor McGonagall, while ancient, still scared most of the school populace.  
“Sorry, Professor,” he mumbled as he held himself off from yawning.

“Ten points from Slytherin unless you get this problem right,” she tapped the board and he looked up at it. Scanning it quickly and ignoring Sigyn’s worried look beside him, he figured it out. He smirked inwardly as he replied, because the reason he was half-asleep was that he had been studying this theory overnight for his own “special project”.

“When trying to change a mammal to a reptile, you must remember the special flick at the end, like a coda, to ensure that the creature’s blood changes from warm to cold to complete the full transformation,” he told her. McGonagall looked surprised and gratified that he got it and that he apparently could pay attention while half asleep.

“Good work, Friggajarson, try to get to sleep at a reasonable hour tonight.” She did not take any points but some of the others tittered in amusement.

“She’s right,” Sigyn whispered “You’ve been really tired lately.”

“Just working on something is all.” Their conversation was cut short with an indiscreet warning cough from their professor and their eyes snapped back to the board.

At dinnertime, Loki decided to just grab something small before excusing himself with a small kiss for Sigyn and he left. He had a letter to write to Thor to tell him about his upcoming birthday celebration. It fell during the school term so his friends were doing a little something for him but he knew his mother would have a little party in the Easter break for him as she always did.

Distracted, he did not notice that he was being followed as he turned out of the Great Hall and down towards the dungeons. Just as he went to turn a corner, something made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up and he threw himself aside just as a spell crashed in to the wall right by where he had been standing and blew rocks out of the wall. He dropped his books and his bag and whipped out his wand, but his attacker had had the element of surprise and he yelled in pain as his cheek was lacerated by a cutting hex.

“Muggle-loving filth,” it was Antioch and Loki saw him as he materialised out of the shadows.

“How you could let your mother actually _marry_ that muggle…” Loki did not answer, but shot a quick and neat conjunctivitis curse at the boy as his non-verbal reply and followed it up with the flagrante curse on Antioch’s shoes making him suddenly extremely occupied with getting them off. Loki grabbed his things and ran for it - right in to McGonagall. A flick of her wand caused the spell to cease but Loki noted with grim satisfaction that Antioch’s eyes were still crusty and swollen.

“Professor, Ogden attacked me,” Loki panted but she narrowed her eyes at them both. 

“I know the two of you have not been on friendly terms lately but you know that there is no magic allowed in the corridors.” She reminded them, sternly.

“Professor, if I may…” Loki’s stomach dropped at the sight of the prefect coming down the corridor. They had never got along since as a first year, Loki had got a bit too smug for his own good and swapped his broomstick for a rubber chicken instead of doing as he had been told. That had been the first time people had realised the swotty little pale boy actually had a mean sense of humour. “Ogden _did_ attack Friggajarson. He was fighting back in self-defence.”

Loki blinked a few times in surprise as McGonagall’s lips went dangerously thin and she then grabbed Antioch by the ear and frogmarched him down the hall looking furious and demanding that Loki head up to see Madame Pomfrey for his cut. Loki almost felt sorry for the little turd as he was hauled off.

“I might not like you, Loki,” the prefect said “but I like that little arse even less. Nice cursing.” Then he walked off looking pleased with himself and Loki had no clue what had just happened or why. Thanking his lucky stars that he was not more hurt or had lost points for Slytherin (although he was sure Antioch would suffer that as well soon enough when people found out), he decided to just heal himself and head for the Owlery. Up there, he could write to Thor, his mother and to Sif and he would not be disturbed.

Smiling to himself and thinking about what he would write - as he would never admit to his mother that he had cursed another kid even in self-defence - he headed up the stairs to find Hela.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First off, I want to apologise for the delay in posting. In short, my work load has literally doubled (someone quit and I got their job as well as mine) and I've been out on three business trips since I last updated.
> 
> I _will_ finish this story, just please bear with me while I adapt to my hectic new schedule. Also, I will be on holiday next month (my little sister is visiting from America, yay!) so I doubt I will update in those two weeks, just as a heads-up.
> 
> Thanks and I hope you enjoyed it!


	22. Out of the frying pan...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The group get deeper in to Hydra.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Warning notes** : There is a lot of discussion of sex, sexism, what men think they deserve from women just from clumsy flirting and/or buying them things. This is actually going to be a plot point later on and is therefore in here for a reason. Sif will be putting herself in a dangerous situation simply _because_ she is the sole female of the group.  
>  They are also going by pseudonyms with regards to Hydra and their cover. I have listed them here so it is easier for reference:
> 
> Sif: Cara Sharron  
> Thor: Evan Mason  
> Hogun: Mel Davies  
> Fandral: Louis Tranter  
> Volstagg: Stuart Rodericks
> 
> Also, I got wordy again. The length of this part of [Quintessence](http://archiveofourown.org/series/71794) will be a little longer than originally planned. Hope you don’t mind ;D

Sif’s infiltration of Hydra was going as perfectly as it could. In five weeks, she had managed to not only get in the shady group but become known as someone reliable. Then, when she had recommended her friends as competent, they had all been trialled and brought on board. The man, Jacques Onésime, who had originally picked her out was not as charming as he thought he was, but Sif indulged him anyway in order to try to get more intel out of him without his realising. Thor bristled everytime he saw it and he knew there was more to it than just Sif flirting with someone, after all, he had seen that for many years now and it was not that he wanted her for himself as he had Jane. Still, there was something bothering him about seeing Sif let that snake coo over her and touch her arm for their sake.

His missives back to Colonel Hymirson were strictly professional and sent only through the secure channel and as he sent the newest transmission, he caught sight of Sif dressed up to the nines.

“Sif?!” he managed to choke and gulp at the same time when he saw her. She was wearing some sort of shiny green party dress (Satin? Was that the name of the fabric? He tossed the notion aside as he did not know anyway) that clung to her every curve and showed off everything just perfectly with a hint as to what delights lay underneath. Thor turned red and stared at her.

“Thor?” she smirked back at him and posed as if she were a catwalk model for a moment “You think Jacques will like it?”

“Do you care if Jacques will like it?” he somehow managed to pronounce Jacques as synonymous with ‘turd’.

“I do, as he is our best shot at getting some info on Hydra, yes,” she retorted. “Sadly, part of being a woman means that men will try to shag me even when I don’t want them to. Luckily, it also makes them weak to my wiles when I give them a glimpse of what they could have.”

“I don’t want him to touch you. He doesn’t deserve you.”

“No, he doesn’t, but I am on a mission and will do whatever is required, even if what is required is Jacques Onésime.” She reminded him.

“I hate that you have to put yourself in that situation just because you’re a woman,” Thor sighed as he stood up and drew her in for as much of a hug as he could give without crushing her dress.

“So do I, but I somewhat doubt getting Volstagg in a slinky dress would work so well,” she chuckled. “He will be deep in his cups and high on the thought that he can unwrap me from this dress and he will let slip. They always do.”

Hogun and Fandral came out of the kitchen and Fandral dropped his mouth open, which was full of a cheese toastie and therefore a little gross.

“You look lovely, Sif,” Hogun told her as he elbowed Fandral to make him close his mouth.

The bell rang and Hogun opened the door to Jacques and glared at him. 

“Have her home by midnight,” he warned as Sif came walking over and revealed her presence.

“We’ll be fine, Mel,” she turned to Jacques “ready to go?”

“Mademoiselle Cara, you look... magnifique,” he told her, almost breathless at the vision before him. He held out his arm and Sif took it, walking away in to the night.

“I’ll um… see you guys later,” Fandral mumbled and scurried off to his room. Hogun rolled his eyes at him and surreptitiously followed Sif and Jacques, watching from the shadows.

As she left their temporary home, Thor turned and smashed the plate he had been eating off of before sending the missive and then getting on the secure phone to Jane. He needed to hear her voice right now. He could not follow as deftly as Hogun and he would likely only end up giving them away - he was utterly helpless. That and he knew that Sif and Hogun had a connection that was deeper than he had known even a year ago. Looking back on their time as friends, he had never realised how much they had each other’s backs. Sif could take care of herself, but there was never anything wrong in having back up.

He told Jane about Jacques Onésime and Sif and how useless and powerless he felt, for all his strength that he could not stop the situation.

“It sounds like Sif knows exactly what she is doing, Thor,” Jane told him with a sad tone to her voice. “It is just one of those sad truths of the world that many men think they can get at what is under a girl’s skirts just because they want to.”

“I don’t think that is right. I want to march after them and pull us out of this whole thing right now.”

“It isn’t right, but how would Sif react if she has put in all of this effort only for you to get macho and protective? How would she thank you for messing up this mission because you were worried for her because she is a woman?” Jane’s tone was sharp but it helped him anyway.

“I…”

“Didn’t you say that her father is your commanding officer? How would she like to come home with no results because her gender put her in danger? Thor, I know you mean well and you really are a good man - but it is because you are a good man that you are angry about this. If you stopped this date thing, and you know her better than I, would she not turn her rage on you instead?”

“She would.”

“Then ignore the fact that she is on a date with someone dangerous in order to get information and let her make her choices for herself.”

“You’re right. I still don’t think she should be the only one that has to do this because she is a girl.”

“She shouldn’t, in a perfect world. Think of it this way, the sooner she gets the information you need, the sooner you can come home, right?”

“I’ll be home as soon as I can. I miss you, Jane.”

“I miss you, too.”

___________

Hogun followed for a little while, waiting. Then he noticed the signal that he and Sif had pre-planned in secret. He moved quickly and silently and got to the door by the ladies’ room. As Sif excused herself to ‘freshen up’, she whispered an address as she moved in to the toilets.

Armed with his knowledge, he slipped out again and left Sif in the restaurant with the Hydra minion. Stealthily, he made his way to 2, Grimpon du Porc Epic as instructed and looked for the symbol. 

There, he spied the porcupine of the street name entwined with a snake above the door. This was the secret Hydra base that Onésime’s cell operated out of. He did some quick recon and noted down every entrance and exit he could find as well as points of strength and vulnerability.

He heard some chuckles coming from down the street and made his silent exit, passing Sif and Jacques as he went. She had the man eating out of the palm of her hand, that was clear and so he left them to it.

When he got back to the shared accommodation, Thor immediately looked for Sif.

“Where is she?”

“She is still working on him, but I got a good look at the secret base.”

Thor wanted to storm out, but Jane’s words still echoed in his head and he forced himself to get Fandral and Volstagg to go over what Hogun had found.

Sif returned two hours later, footsore but happy. Jacques gave her a long, indulgent kiss as he dropped her off and Thor’s cup only narrowly missed the same fate as his plate from earlier.

“I got the goods,” she beamed as she kicked her shoes off, once they were alone again.

“He told me all sorts of things,” she looked over their plans. “Like that Gérald usually leaves his post on Wednesdays for a booty call with Yvon from the patisserie I used to work at when the shop closes. That is our way in. The only question is how soon? I think tomorrow gives us too little time to prepare, but I leave it up to you.”

“Show of hands,” Thor decided.

“The sooner I get home to Gunnhilde, the better,” Volstagg said. “We don’t need to wait, we got this cell in hand.”

“I’ve had my fill of French fillies, I’d like to go home,” Fandral chipped in.

“I say we wait at least two weeks,” Hogun told them. 

“I agree with Hogun,” Sif stated flatly.

“So I get the swing vote.” Thor mused. “I want to go home to Jane, but we need to be sure. We wait one week.”

“An excellent compromise,” Sif decided. “I’m off to bed. Goodnight.”


	23. ...and in to the fire

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: violent, graphic character death

Thor and Fandral were busy keeping a quiet eye on Yvon and trying to note what they were up to the next day, working out if there was anything to keep in mind for the next week when they infiltrated the secret base. 

He had sent Hogun and Volstagg to the “main” compound that they all had access to, but in which there was very little that would be of use to Colonel Hymirson in the larger scheme of the plans. Sif was off with Jacques again and was out of reach.

They had decided to get as much pertinent information as possible with regards to their sting the next week. They had told Warrant Officer Izdaja of their intended infiltration and she had told them that Colonel Hymirson would return their instructions.  
As it was, they were all hoping that they would get enough on Hydra to get them brought back home soon. They were soldiers, not spies and Thor knew that his feet were not the only ones itching for some action.

Their orders arrived the on the Thursday, they were to do a smash-and-grab on the information and get as much of it on to drives as possible before pulling out. 

Sif had got lots of information from Jacques over the past week, between her flirting and apparent devotion to her new cause and their plan had been meticulously put together. They would enter from the entry point that Gérald was supposed to cover as soon as Volstagg gave the signal that he and Yvon were occupied. Sif would keep Jacques distracted so that he could not blow the whistle on them and Hogun would scrape as much of their data on to a drive as possible before they made their exit.

“In and out, clean and swift,” Thor reminded them as they pulled on their night-combat blacks.

“Don’t mess this up. We won’t get a second shot,” Sif reminded them as she walked in, looking elegant and sensual but also functional. Flat, sturdy shoes and an outfit that looked almost painted on. Thor knew that she would have a couple of knives concealed on her as well anyway, she always did.

“Gérald and Yvon seem to be meeting as planned, he does not seem to be in a bad mood, Jacques will be out with me and Fandral, you can charm Eugénie if she tries to question why you’re there. Apparently, she likes you.”

“Can do!” Fandral saluted her. “Sif is not the only one who can charm their way to information~”

“Ready men and lady?” Thor asked of them.

“Ready. Give me five minutes to get clear.” Sif told them and then she disappeared off to get Jacques and keep his attention far from the building. He was the biggest threat they faced and needed to be neutralised for this mission to be a success.

When the time was up, they headed out and got in to position. Volstagg hid in the shadows and watched as Gérald checked surreptitiously around and then sneaked around the corner and met up with Yvon. As they came together in a frantic kiss, Volstagg withdrew, satisfied of their preoccupation and signalled.

They moved forward as one silent unit. Hogun used the door code that Sif had given him and they slipped through the door.They got to the main room unchallenged and as the three of them fanned out around the entry points as Hogun plugged in, they heard some chattering in French nearby. Thor froze when he realised that it sounded like Jacques. He picked up the words “Eugénie” and “attack”.

“Quick,” he hissed at Hogun “they’re on to us.”

There was a huge explosion and the very walls rocked as some of the ceiling cracked with the force of it.

“Cara, allez!” Jacques yelled and Thor’s blood ran cold.

“Sif is in here,” he hissed at the others. “Volstagg, cover Hogun and get back to the flat. Fandal, with me, we’re making sure she gets out.” Without even pausing to check that his orders had been heeded, he hurtled out of the room and saw Adrien Josselin-Petit, one of the Hydra veterans and snapped his neck before he could even cry out.

“Never liked him anyway,” he muttered as Fandral caught up to him. “Take them all out, I don’t care, we keep her safe.”

“Agreed.”

As they turned the corner, the were nearly pinned down by a sharp-shooter named Marcellin but Fandral sliced two knives through the air. One took Marcellin in the chest and the other in the hand, knocking the gun free. The reflexive shot went harmlessly wide and Thor raced forward and slit his throat. Fandral retrieved his knives even as Jacques and Sif came hurtling around the corner.

“Run! Eugénie brought S.H.I.E.L.D.!” Sif screamed at them as Jacques tried to protect her from a bullet by knocking her to the side.

“Let’s go,” Thor demanded as he reached for his friend and helped her to her feet.

The next few minutes were a blur of bullets, blood and carnage as S.H.I.E.L.D. tore through the facility, meeting up with Volstagg and Hogun en route. As they got to Gérald’s door, they were caught in a pincer of rival agents.

“Wait!” One of the agents ripped his mask off and stared at Sif.

“Gaël?” She asked, clearly shocked. “What are you doing here?”

“I could ask the same of you, Hydra agent,” he reminded as he tightened his grip on his gun but did not aim it.

“I’m not Hydra,” she told him as Jacques looked dumbfounded. “I think we’re both here for the same reason, but different agencies. If you spare my men here, I will explain everything. If you don’t like what I have to say, you can take us out then.”

“Agreed.”

“But Sir,” Eugénie stepped forward.

“I know her. You will stand down, Agent.”

“Sir.” She did as commanded.

“Traitor!” Jacques yelled and lunged for Sif, but he clearly did not know about her concealed knife rule and she deftly drew one out of her boot and sliced through his throat in one swift movement.

“You can’t be a traitor to something you never believed in,” she told him as his life’s blood spilled across the floor.

“Bind their hands, take them to the cells,” Gaël commanded.

__________

They spent a day and a night in the dark cells, under heavy guard. When they were finally summoned, it was only Sif that they took.

When she had been gone for over four hours, the others were released from their shackles and brought before Gaël and Eugénie.

“It would seem that both our agencies were working for the same goal,” he explained. “Colonel Hymirson is well known to my superiors and we were able to verify Týrdotter’s story.”

“So, you were all there to take out Hydra as well?” Thor asked.

“We were. We have had Eugénie in place for a while. Our attack was triggered by the report of powerful new allies - you - being brought in. We decided to wipe them out, they had outlived their usefulness anyway.”

“Can we go, then? Can we return to England?” Volstagg asked, hopefully.

“You can. I will be in touch through the official channels, we have a car outside to take you back.”

As they all stood to leave, Thor overheard Fandral asking for Eugénie’s number over one shoulder and Gaël speaking to Sif over his other.

“Might I contact you through unofficial channels as well?”

“You may, it will be good to catch up without Hydra getting in the way.”

“Safe journey, Sif.”

As soon as the door closed, Thor turned to her.

“How do you know _Gaël_ , then?”

“Remember that year I spent in France and had that boyfriend? That was Gaël.” She replied with a nostalgic smile. “It’ll be good to catch up.”


	24. The wolf in the night

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Loki and Thor return home and Thor learns about Loki's Animagi ability.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Back off of my holidays showing my sister around London and rearing to go, only a couple more chapters before Part One wraps up!
> 
>  
> 
> **Note: The age of consent in the UK is 16 and is referenced in this chapter.**

Back to the flat, packed up, on the EuroTunnel, debriefed and finally back at Gladsheim. Thor felt better already as he stepped out of his own shower, wrapped in his own towel. That feeling was compounded by finding that Frigga had let Jane in and she was waiting for him on his bed.

At dinner that night, they all sat around and ate and Thor told them little snippets of things he could share without violating his confidentiality agreement.

“Was that French boy not the reason your heart was broken as a teenager, Thor?” Odin asked and Thor decided to rise above the baiting.

“Yes, but that was many years ago now, Father. I have grown up since then.”

“We’ve all grown out of crushes from our youth,” Frigga cut in with a warning glance at her husband over Jane’s head. “On to more important things, though, my Loki will be home in three days and I want to throw him a party. I always do as I don’t get to spend his birthday with him.”

“I think that is a great idea!” Thor enthused. “I actually missed the little toerag.”

“Then it is settled. We shall have a small thing for him when he returns home for the holidays.”

Exactly as Frigga had wanted, the parlour and ballroom were turned in to a party zone for Loki’s return. His friends from school (Antioch carefully excluded from the invitation list) all met Frigga and Thor at Platform 9 ¾ and went back to Gladsheim with them. Loki had looked at Thor and smirked, but not embraced his brother until they were alone at the house, dropping off his trunks when they hugged each other tight and close.

“Get in to much trouble at school?”

“Loads. Probably not as much as you did outside of school, I’m guessing,” he retorted with a dry chuckle.

“You’d guess right. Come on, I want to ask Sigyn what you’ve _really_ been up to this term,” he chuckled and ruffled Loki’s hair. “Or do I not want to know now that you are both sixteen?” 

Loki frowned at him and fixed his hair.

“Just because I am of age does not mean that is all I think about, unlike you.” Thor thumped him on the back genially and they made their way in to the ballroom where the kids were and left the adults to their own devices in the parlour. Many of the wizarding society wives were in there, sipping delicate and beautiful flowering teas made from Frigga’s own gardens at Fensalir whilst the teenagers revelled in the ballroom.

Thor had been allowed to invite Jane, Darcy, Sif and the Three in the evening when most of the revellers had gone home with a slice of cake and a goody bag filled with little magical trinkets from Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes in Diagon Alley. Many of the teens left were exhausted from the long journey on the Hogwarts Express and after dancing until they were ready to drop, headed home with their parents as well.

Loki sat down with Sigyn and Thor’s friends.

“So, tell me what _really_ happened,” Loki told them. 

“Well, we’re bound by confidentiality agreements,” Sif said in an almost warning tone to Fandral, who lit up to tell of their escapades with no doubt very embellished parts.

“We can tell them _some_ stuff,” he reminded her. Her lack of reply was taken as assent and between himself, Thor and Volstagg, they painted a much more amusing picture of their trip than was strictly accurate. Loki did not notice the sly little look given to him from Sigyn as they told about Sif getting ready for her date with Jacques, too wrapped up in listening to the tale as he was.

When their tale ended, sanitised of some of the blood, they all turned to the door as Frigga came in.

“Time for me to take Sigyn home,” she reminded them and they glanced at the clock.

Goodbyes were given and everyone trooped home or off to bed, exhausted from the fun day of reunion.

___________________

The next morning after breakfast, Odin headed off to work and Frigga did the same, leaving the two boys together. Thor filled in a few of the secrets he was not supposed to impart and Loki told him tales of classes he had either paid attention in or disrupted as his mood and interest in the subject dictated.

By the time their parents returned and they had eaten dinner, almost every subject of their lives since being parted had been gone over and dissected with amusement for the other. It was a peaceful day at home and after dinner, Thor went off to see Jane for the evening.

Loki went back to his room and busied himself with setting his things out as he preferred them for his holiday back home and after a long soak in the bath, he sat on his window seat and read a book by the fading sunlight. As the sun gave way to the moon’s pale reflected light, he found himself itching beneath the skin. He went and said his goodnights to his mother and Odin and then went back in to his room. After waiting a while, satisfied that his mother was not going to come in and check on him, he opened the window and slipped through. As soon as he was sure he was likely out of sight of any prying eyes, he dropped to his hands and they transformed in to paws before they hit the ground. This sort of magic could not be held by the Trace and he breathed in the scent of flowers, earth and the running stream nearby. The world smelled different when he was in this form and he loved the feelings they excited.

Soon enough, his tail flicked and he was off through the trees and headed off to claim this as his territory, as human and as wolf. He could smell the fear of the critters around him and he scared a roaming cat out of its wits. Amused, he continued on until he picked up the scent of another dog amidst another scent he was not sure of. It smelled familiar and foreign all at once. The dog seized his attention, it was a large breed and he wanted it off of his land.

They began to circle one another and soon, Loki pressed his dominance and lunged forward in a vicious first strike.

___________________

Thor had come home and spied Loki slipping from his room in to the shadows and, concerned as well as intrigued, followed him. He managed to cover his mouth and muffle the gasp of shock when he saw Loki _change_ in to some sort of dog. No, a _wolf_. His little brother was some sort of shapeshifter and he was beyond confused. Was not magic forbidden in the holidays? Had Loki found a loophole or would they get an angry wizard at the door tomorrow at breakfast?

Pushing these thoughts to the back of his mind, he followed stealthily, watching Loki-wolf’s movements and seeing a distinct pattern of territory-claiming. His heart almost thumped out his chest when he saw Loki-wolf and the big dog circling each other. If he was not mistaken, he was thinking that it was a liver and white Pointer breed, meaning if it came to blows, Loki might have the advantage but the Pointers were sound, healthy dogs. Thor wanted to intervene and stop it, but he was fearful of hurting one or the other. Then, Loki lunged.

Thor winced as he watched the two dogs fighting,. It was brief but violent and soon, Loki stood triumphant over the other, who was down and submissive before him. Thor breathed a sigh of relief too loudly and the wolf turned to look at him.

Thor had never been so fearful in his life. What if the wolf form stopped Loki from recognising him? What if both dogs attacked him as an intruder? He could not attack an animal and would end up resorting to fleeing up a tree if he could find one with ample foothold and girth for his bulk.

Loki did not attack, though, he slunk forward as graceful in this form as his other and pressed at Thor’s hand with his nose. Then before Thor could pet him, he walked off imperiously back towards the house. Thor followed.

It was only when they reached the edge of the trees that the Pointer turned tail after another submissive pose towards the wolf and Loki transformed back in to his own body, a few cuts and bruises on his skin.

“We should get those looked at,” Thor whispered as they crept back in to the house. Thor got his First Aid kit and they sat on Loki’s bed while his elder brother tended to his wounds - luckily all superficial bar one that would still heal without much difficulty.

“So, you are a wolf.”

“Well spotted.” Loki replied, dryly.

“How long have you been a wolf?”

“Not long, I only discovered the ability recently. I was at school.”

“Can all wizards do that?” Thor asked, earnestly.

“No. Very few are animagi and only one I know of has more than one form.”

“Only one? Wow, so it is rare, then.”

“Only one - and I am he.” Thor looked gobsmacked at his little brother’s power, but he did not know how to express such a thing, such an unknown and otherworldly _thing_.

“I heard a wolf in Scotland once, I kept feeling like I needed to walk towards it,” Thor admitted, trying to get the conversation back to a place where he could actually comprehend it.

“There are no wolves in Scotland,” Loki turned his green eyes to him and fixed on his face intently. “Except me.”

“Wait, are you saying I was _sensing_ you?” Thor spluttered as he dipped the cloth back in to the washbasin.

“You shouldn’t be able to, you have no magi- oh. Oh dear.”

“What?! What is it?”

“You don’t have magic, but I think when we became blood brothers, you must have gained the ability to sense me.”

“Oh…...shit.”

“Indeed.”


	25. I miss your face

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Odin and Thor voice their disagreements over his deepening relationship with Jane while at Hogwarts Loki gets a lesson in casting patronii from an unexpected source.

The spring break had passed with a lot of joy and yet as such a short holiday entailed, it was all too soon that Loki was back on the Hogwarts Express and speeding away from his brother once again. Thor found himself spending more and more time with Jane and trying to suppress the knowledge that Sif and Gaël had been corresponding once again. He had taken a slightly irrational dislike to Gaël and he could not figure out why (nor did he want to figure out why, he was happy detesting the man even if Jane thought he was being childish).

Things with Jane had most definitely intensified, though, and despite what his father thought of the match, Thor was deliriously happy at being back home with her again. While they did not seem to be in so much of a hurry as Volstagg and Gunnhilde to settle in together, they were definitely no longer taking things all that slowly. She consoled him when he missed Loki and she was either the first or the second to hear his letters (Frigga got her own and heard some heavily-edited ones that her sons sent to one another) when they arrived via Hela.

The weeks passed in quiet and Thor had almost forgotten the hell of being away on assignment when he woke up with her in his arms or she was curled up at his side, reading some treatise on the stars while he boned up on his weapons knowledge for when they were recalled. The group still kept their physicality up but had all been benched until a new mission came up for them and they could not risk the potential exposure of mixing them with the regular infantry or officers in case they needed to be extracted quickly and quietly. That and Colonel Hymirson was still trying to sort things out with S.H.I.E.L.D. over the whole fiasco.

Dinner at Gladsheim should have been a night of joy, Thor was starting to think of Jane with long-term prospects and he wanted to reconcile his father to the idea that she would likely be a fixture in Thor’s life for a long time to come. He even had hopes of things going well until dessert was served.

“Thor, I will need you in the office at some point this week. There are some files that I want you to start familiarising yourself with,” his father told him as Thor dug in to his Eton Mess.

“Why?” Thor asked, nonplussed. A few months ago, he would have been thrilled to do so, but he had Jane to think of - and his military career. “I won’t be discharged for a couple of years yet and I might choose to stay on. Colonel Hymirson is a good superior officer to work for.”

“I cannot rule over Asgard Enterprises forever. I need you to start familiarising yourself with some of the key policies and core tenets of the business for when you take over.”

“I already know the core tenets, you drilled them in to me enough over the years,” Thor replied, getting irritated.

“My dear, I believe Jane and I should retire to the parlour while you two discuss this,” Frigga said delicately and Jane stood to follow the older woman.

“I would only hear of you extending your stint with the military if you and Týr had a closer bond.” Odin told him far less delicately than his wife had.

“Father, Sif and I are _never_ getting married. You and Týr need to get over the match you planned when we were toddlers fighting over who got to play with the rattle. For one thing, she is with Gaël and for another I am with Jane. We are not attracted to each other like that, we’re _friends_.” Thor protested, going a little red in the face as Jane had not yet left the room.

“She is not worthy to shine your boots!” Odin roared and Thor smashed his bowl in anger as he slammed the spoon down.

“You know nothing of what you speak, you are just a foolish old man!” Thor boomed right back.

“I am contented that my son is dating such a lovely girl as Sigyn Mårten,” Frigga cut in the momentary silence as the two glowered at each other in a placid voice. “However, my approval or thought means nothing as long as he is happy. I should learn to be happy for him.”

Thor was still embarrassed even though Frigga’s words were soothing, it still implied that Odin would simply have to forebear with his relationship. He could see that Jane was beetroot out of the corner of his eye.

“I love Jane Foster, Father. Be content with that.” He then walked from the room, taking Jane’s hand and calling for the servants to send some of his clothes on to her residence and before the door swung closed on his parents, Frigga’s scolding tones could be heard directed at her husband.

Getting back to Jane’s place was not a great journey. She was embarrassed, he was furious and very little was said between them until they were shut up in her room and locked away from the prying ears of Darcy.

“Thor, I-”

“He should not have spoken about you like that” he burst out. “I promise you, there is nothing between Sif and I.”

“I believe you - and I trust you.” Jane soothed him a little and his anger started to ebb a little now that the cause of it was no longer in front of him. “He might not like me, but I know it is because he is disappointed that he won’t get Sif as a daughter-in-law some day.”

“I meant it, you know.”

“I know.” It had been the first time that he had said he loved her and he was embarrassed that it had been screamed across a table in anger. He sat on her bed, calming himself and drew her down beside him.

“I love you, Jane Foster.”

“I love you, too.”

_________

“GET THAT BLOODY BIRD OFF OF ME!” was not the sound Jane had probably expected to wake up to after their confessions the night before, but then little had gone according to plan ever since she had struck Thor with her car.

Hela deposited her letter and flew off with a squawk of indignation and being swatted at, heading for the kitchen where she knew Darcy would fuss over her and feed her bacon rinds before the reply was ready.

“That bird has the worst timing,” he moaned as he pushed himself up and wiped the sleep from his eyes, plucking Loki’s missive from the bedsheets.

“Woah, Sigyn got detention…” Thor told Jane and they both read with astonishment.

_________

“This is very advanced magic,” the guest lecturer told them, to general slack-jawed staring. Harry Potter and his wife, Ginevra Potter formerly of the Holyhead Harpies had been visiting Professor Longbottom and they had been cajoled in to helping out for the lesson.

The students were mostly star-struck by their presence, all having become so used to Professor Longbottom that they did not suffer in the same way when he was there.

The patronii being produced were, some of them, spectacular. Most could only produce a wisp of silvery smoke but even that was praised by the Potters. Sigyn flushed with pleasure as her own patronus formed in to a shape in front of the famous witch.

“An alligator,” she told her. “It stands for ancient wisdom, survival and tradition. You are confident in your own power and assertive when you need to be and have good reason.”

“What is your patronus, Mrs. Potter?” she asked.

“A horse.”

As Sigyn was speaking with one of her heroes, Loki's group was approached by Harry Potter himself.

“Expecto Patronum!” he called out and the wisp of smoke coalesced in to a human shape - a familiar human shape.

“Look at that! Friggajarson’s patronus is his _step-brother_. Aww, how sweet! His useless, muggle step-brother.” Antioch’s jeering caused Loki to flush a mixture of puce and angry red.

“Ogden! Fifteen points from Slytherin!” The regular Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher called to try to stop the scene unfolding, but it was ineffective.

“Ikkle baby Loki needs his big muggle brother to-” a loud bang went off and Antioch started screaming as he was attacked by great big, flapping bogies and then there was another loud bang when he found himself covered in boils. Every one present turned to stare at the girl with her wand raised, breathing heavily and looking like it was costing her a great deal to not hex Ogden any worse.

“Miss Mårten! Twenty points from Slytherin, you do _not_ attack fellow students. Class dismissed.”

“You know,” Harry leaned down and to whisper quietly in Loki’s ear as his wife did the same to Sigyn. “That was always my wife’s favourite hex at school, too. Don’t be ashamed of your patronus, my own patronus is my father - just in his secret animagus form.”

“Your father was an animagus?” Loki asked in a surprised whisper. 

“He was, he was a stag.” Loki nodded, he had seen Mr. Potter’s patronus at the beginning of the class. “It was a secret though, so keep that to yourself.”

“I will. I’m one, too. A wolf.” The two shared a small smile before Loki had to hurry off after his girlfriend, who was being given her first ever detention. He was already hatching a plan to sneak her some pumpkin juice and to help her get through whatever it was as she had come to his defence.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoyed the cameos!


	26. Summer Lovin'

The summer holidays had rolled around, Loki had finished school and he was helping Thor in to his tuxedo. It seemed love was in the air and after assuring everyone that Gunnhilde was not pregnant, she and Volstagg had announced their engagement. It seemed their time apart had been enough for them and they had just decided to go for it.

Thor was the best man and he enjoyed teasing Fandral over it as “just a groomsman”, but is joking demeanour hid his own quiet reservations. This had put in his mind the idea of seeing Jane some day waiting down an aisle for him in a beautiful white dress and it was at once both exciting and disconcerting. He eventually decided that he wanted it, but just not yet. He did not want to leave her again while he was on tour, a military wife waiting for her husband to return. That and she had not fully committed to life in London and he did not want to feel like he was making a choice for her.

Hogun commandeered Loki’s help with his buttonhole as the younger boy had deft fingers and was good with handling flowers thanks to his mother’s gardens. He had asked one or two very short questions and Loki told him a little more of life at Hogwarts. Once no attention was on them whatsoever, Hogun asked a question of Loki urgently.

“How do you identify a witch to send them to your school?”

“They usually show signs of odd things happening around them when their emotions are high. Children cannot control their magic, which is why we get sent to school to learn to control and direct it. Why?” Loki looked at the man quizzically, not just for the subject matter but the fact that he had said more than three words together.

“My little cousin, she fell recently. She should have broken both of her legs in the fall but she did not have a scratch on her.”

“That could just be luck, it has been known to happen.”

“It is not the first time.” Hogun was forced to elaborate by Loki’s expression. “When she was two, she was in her high-chair when the dog bounded in and hit it. She should have been dashed to the floor but she just … floated down, unharmed.”

“She is likely a witch, then,” Loki responded with a sage nod.

“So this is real? This is your school?” Hogun fished a Hogwarts acceptance letter from his pocket and showed it to Loki.

_Dear Miss Greengrass,_

_We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry._

“This is a real letter, your cousin is a Greengrass?” Loki asked, handing it back.

“Yes? Is that important?” Hogun asked.

“They’re a prominent wizarding family. My guess is, you are descended from a squib they hushed up.” Loki continued at Hogun’s confused expression, which was not much different from his regular expression. “Someone born in to a wizarding family but has no magic themselves.”

Hogun looked like he knew just what Loki was talking about.

“My grandmother, said she was an orphan.”

“She was likely abandoned by her parents for not having magic. It is sad but it used to happen in some families because of an outdated belief in blood status.”

Attention moved back to them and Loki went to the pews to await the bride. He spotted Hogun whispering to a girl of ten whom Loki assumed to be the witch. She looked excited and Hogun pointed him out before hushing her and Loki figured he was urging secrecy. She waved excitedly at him and he smiled fondly. She seemed sweet enough.

The ceremony went off without a hitch, excepting the mother of the bride sobbing rather loudly with happiness. As they all filed in to the reception hall, Loki found himself rather content to watch the world go by. Thor’s speech was hilarious and terrible, Fandral’s toast was rather more clean than any had suspected it would be and the dancing began.

As the couples of Volstagg and Gunnhilde and Thor and Jane twirled nearby, Loki moved closer to Sif.

“Want to dance?” he asked her and she smiled, accepting him.

“Where is Gaël tonight?” he asked as they began to spin in time with the other couples on the dance floor.

“On a secret mission somewhere. Sigyn?”

“On holiday in Antigua with her parents,” Loki replied.

“Say hello to her next time to write, I should pen a letter myself,” she mused.

“I will. She likes hearing from you.”

“Maybe when she comes back, we can all hang out together a bit more before we get reassigned somewhere.”

“I’d like that a lot, Sif.” They ceased talking as they twirled around the dance floor, everything was lovely and Loki found himself actually being happy and optimistic about his future.

______

As Loki and Sif danced a set away, Thor took Jane by the hand and took her outside for a little fresh air as she said she was getting a little warm.

“I have something to tell you, actually,” she told him excitedly after a sip of juice and a seat revived her a little. “I’ve been offered a position permanently at the university to work with Erik. I’m going to say yes.”

“So… so you're staying in England?” he asked, astonished and delighted.

“So I’m staying in England,” she confirmed. “As is Darcy, she already signed up to my class even though there is no class to sign up _to_ , yet.”

“This…” he found himself utterly bereft of words, so he kissed her instead, which seemed to do the trick.

A year ago, he could not have imagined such a thing. He had a new mother, a little brother, his friends and he had Jane. The only bump in the road ahead that he could see was his father, but he was sure he would come to love Jane Foster as well, given time. As Loki inside was feeling happy and optimistic, so was Thor and the two fuelled the other.

Life had turned out far better than they could have foreseen and they danced the happy night away with not a cloud in sight as the stars twinkled down.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> End of Part One!
> 
> Never fear, [Part Two begins here](http://archiveofourown.org/works/2171454/chapters/4749714)!
> 
> The next instalment will see Loki graduating from Hogwarts and stepping in to the unknown of the adult world. To which does he belong, magic or muggle? Can he make both work whilst not running afoul of the Ministry's laws? Not to mention whatever Thor manages to do to disrupt his peaceful life...


End file.
